The metaphysician has his formula ready for everything. He says—either this formula fits or it does not. If it does, that settles it. If it does not, then he has some alternative formula ready. "Either-or, but not both" is his motto. A thing is either this or that; it has either this set of properties or that set of properties; two things stand to one another either in this relationship or in that.
[From Materialism and the Dialectical Method (Maurice Cornforth)]
What does "two things stand to one another" mean? Does it mean that two things meet each other?
