  Of course, while connectedness clearly comes in degrees, it is less  clear that continuity does. For one thing, if continuity  consists in strong connectedness, and what makes for such strength is the obtaining of an amount of direct psychological connections above  some specified threshold (as it does for Parfit 1984, 206), then  continuity is not a matter of degree: either strong connectedness  obtains at each link in the chain or it does not (Belzer 2005). But  even if we allow that some links in the chain may be weaker than  others, if what matters is the existence of the chain, it is difficult to see why its strength in certain patches is relevant. In  other words, even if we allow that continuity comes in degrees, it is not entirely clear why our patterns of concern ought to track the  amount and not simply the fact of continuity.  Indeed, if what matters is supposed to be the degree of continuity,  it might seem to make more sense simply to focus on the more  obviously scalar relation in which continuity consists, viz.,  connectedness, as delivering the units of significance in  the form of selves.