An Interdisciplinary Discourse on Continuity

Continuism posits continuity—functional, narrative, and semantic—as the fundamental ontological substrate, replacing fixed substances. Drawing on the Ship of Theseus, Gettier problems, and Ricoeur’s idem/ipse distinction, we show identity and knowledge depend on coherent, truth-tracking processes. We then dismantle hedonism and determinism via wire-heading and causal paradoxes, demonstrating that neither raw pleasure nor inevitability grounds agency or justification. By rejecting Cartesian dualism in favor of an embodied, socially and historically embedded mind, we model consciousness as emergent process. Through the Prisoner’s Dilemma, we argue political legitimacy demands justice-tracking institutions, not mere effectiveness. We resolve the meta-temporal regress by defining time as the inflexible backdrop of all change. Finally, via Hegelian sublation and semiotic dynamics, we reveal how dialectical and metaphorical flows generate evolving meaning.