Definition of 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.
Note:
The chapters and the page numbers refer to the book by Werner Stegmaier, What is Orientation? A Philosophical Investigation, translated by Reinhard G. Mueller (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2019).
94, 107-109, 119, 129, 141, 155, 173, 250, 263-264, 267
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