The phrase "as a special relation" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a unique or specific connection between two entities or concepts.
Example: "The study explores the dynamics of human behavior as a special relation to environmental factors."
Alternatives: "as a unique connection" or "in a specific context".
Russell (e.g., 1940, Chapter 6) held that a substance just is a bundle of universals themselves related by a special relation between properties, known as compresence.
In this case, as in that of Christianity, the new religion claimed a special relation with Judaism.
(In the second passage above Russell does characterize it as a special "cognitive" relation, but one must immediately wonder what this means given that he explicitly denies that it is judgmental in nature).
The difference between Frege's understanding of predication and the one manifested by the modern predicate calculus is simply this: in the modern predicate calculus, relations are taken as basic, and functions are defined as a special case of relation, namely, those relations R such that for any objects x, y, and z, if Rxy and Rxz, then y=z.
"The self-consciousness of Jews as having a special historical relation to the German past is complicated by the current German xenophobia toward its Turkish citizens.
To the extent that the characteristic spectrum of an atom or a molecule (i.e., the light emitted or absorbed by it) is regarded as a physical property, the special relation between spectroscopy and isotopy warrants individual treatment here.
Now, this way of looking at soul-body relations as a special case of form-matter relations treats reference to the soul as an integral part of any complete explanation of a living being, of any kind.
Mill's view is that one has as a matter of fact this special relation to one's own body; it largely determines one's identity as a person.
Only these first two statements construe the distinctive feature of self-knowledge as plainly epistemic; however, most who endorse (3) also claim that this agential relation grounds a special epistemic relation.
