Continuant
Continuant
”That which continues to exist while its states or relations may be changing” (Johnson, Logic I, p. 199). The continuant is in Johnson’s metaphysics a revised and somewhat more precise form of the traditional conception of substance; it includes, according to him, that residuum from the traditional conception of substance which is both philosophically justifiable and indispensable.
A “substantive”, or “existent” is defined by Johnson as anything manifested in space or time. The substantives divide into two subclasses, continuants and occurrentsthose which continue to exist, and those which cease to exist. Every occurrent is referable to one or more continuant.
While continuants are collections or sets of occurrents, every collection of occurrents does not constitute a continuant, but only those possessing a certain type of unity. This unity is not an “unknown somewhat” supporting the observable properties; nor does it imply the permanence of any given property. Rather it is a “causal unity of connection between its temporarally or spatially separated manifestations” (Ibid., III, p. 99).
Johnson recognizes two fundamentally distinct types of continuantphysical and psychical, — the “occupant” (of space), and the “experient”. — F.L.W.