Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00728)

On Sun, 29 Dec 96, Mark Kusek <mark@withoutwalls.com> wrote:

>What's the difference between you're use of "duration" and "continuity?"

That there is nothing which does not constantly change means that there is
nothing which has any duration.  Since, at any two instants, any given
object is something different, what it was at any given instant in the past
does not exist anymore.  But since there is a relationship in time in how
the past causes the future, there is continuity between the past and the
future.  Change only occurs gradually.  Just as all human beings have some
things in common but are unique, so does what is known as a certain
individual have much in common with what was known as that individual in
the past, but cannot be the identical individual.  The difference between
the difference between the "you" of the past and the "you" of the present
and the difference between the "you" of now and the "me" of now is only one
of degree, not of kind.  Neither the "you" of the past nor the "me" of now
are the "you" of the present.