# What is a Continuant **Opening (not a real abstract):** In this paper, I want to explore the question of what a continuant is. The topic is, of course, not new, but I hope I can be forgiven for plodding once again over very well-trodden territory by the fact that recent work on the category of process has afforded some new and rather surprising perspectives on the issue. I shall take as my starting point the interesting suggestion recently made by Rowland Stout (forthcoming), as part of his attempt to develop a coherent ontology of processes, that a continuant is best thought of as something that primarily has its properties at times, rather than having its properties primarily atemporally.1 I shall attempt shortly to explain what this means, and why Stout says it—but for now, the important point is that Stout believes that it is a consequence of adopting this **Authors:** [[Steward]]