Glossary
Every term the essays define, in one place. In an essay a defined word opens its definition where you are reading; this page is for reading them together. Each entry says which posts use it.
continuant. An entity that persists through time while being wholly present at each moment it exists, such as an organism, an organ or a table, as opposed to an occurrent, (link to a later section) which has a different part at each moment.
Also: continuants
See also: occurrent (link to a later section)
Used in
looping effect. The way a classification of people can change the people it classifies, who then change in ways that force the classification itself to change, as Ian Hacking described for human kinds.
Also: looping effects, looping
Used in
- Placeholder (link to another page) essay
- Specimen (link to another page) essaythe narrow case of a diagnostic label changing the child it is given to.
occurrent. An entity that unfolds in time and has temporal parts, such as a process, a performance or a life, as opposed to a continuant, (link to an earlier section) which persists whole through time.
Also: occurrents, occurrent entity
The distinction comes from the formal ontology of the twentieth century and is older in substance: a river is an occurrent if what matters is the flowing, a continuant if what matters is the bed. Much of this site argues that development is better described in the first way than the second.
See also: continuant (link to an earlier section)
Used in