Fluctuance

In orientation, nothing is fixed. Even though in everyday orientation we regularly rely on the convenient distinctions of the persistent and the changing or the essential and the inessential, there is nothing persistent, essential, or substantial for all time. Everything, even the strongest footholds can be subjected to change and reorientation, e.g. human beings including their character and body, personal and ascribed identities, values, languages, and all political and societal orders. But orientation is able to deal with these changes. It can find hold even in what may be called fluctuance. Unlike traditional substances, fluctuances are able to change their allegedly substantial determinations in a continuous process. Ultimately, the only hold of orientation onto things and persons is its own continuity in changing their determinations.

94, 107-109, 119, 129, 141, 155, 173, 250, 263-264, 267

 

Glossary

Reinhard Mueller