Context: To put it another way, a thing or person is often seen as having a "defining essence" or a "core identity" that is unchanging, and describes what the thing or person really is. In this way of thinking, things and people are seen as fundamentally the same through time, with any changes being qualitative and secondary to their core identity (e.g. "Mark's hair has turned gray as he has gotten older, but he is still the same person"). But in Whitehead's cosmology, the only fundamentally existent things are discrete "occasions of experience" that overlap one another in time and space, and jointly make up the enduring person or thing. On the other hand, what ordinary thinking often regards as "the essence of a thing" or "the identity/core of a person" is an abstract generalization of what is regarded as that person or thing's most important or salient features across time. Identities do not define people, people define identities. Everything changes from moment to moment, and to think of anything as having an "enduring essence" misses the fact that "all things flow", though it is often a useful way of speaking.

Question: The idea that people are unchanging and stay the same even through changes is considered what?
Answer: defining essence

Question: In Whitehead's cosmology, what are the only things that fundamentally exist?
Answer: occasions of experience

Question: Where do occasions of experience overlap?
Answer: time and space

Question: In Whitehead's view, identities do not define people, but what?
Answer: people define identities

Question: Instead of having an enduring essence, what does Whitehead believe?
Answer: all things flow"

Question: Regarding the idea that individuals or objects don't fundamentally change, what terms can be used to describe what an object or individual actually is?
Answer: "defining essence" or a "core identity"

Question: In that line of thinking, how are changes described?
Answer: qualitative and secondary to their core identity

Question: What did Whitehead believe were essentially the only things that truly exist?
Answer: discrete "occasions of experience" that overlap one another in time and space, and jointly make up the enduring person or thing

Question: Regarding the idea that individuals or objects fundamentally change, what terms can be used to describe what an object or individual actually is?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question:  In that line of thinking, how are changes never described?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: What did Whitehead believe were not essentially the only things that truly exist?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: The idea that people are changing and stay the same even through changes is considered what?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: In Whitehead's cosmology, what are the only things that fundamentally dont exist?
Answer: Unanswerable