need help to understand foundations

I would appreciate some help with this if the question makes sense to anybody
out there. The output of a flipflop is determined by its inputs, right? Well,
could you spell that out for me please? Here's what I mean: Suppose I have a
flipflop F (of a given type; JK or D or what-have-you), and suppose I model time
with the real number line (continuous, Newtonian time; a lifespan for F that
stretches off to infinity in both directions; feel free to criticise any of this
if it's essentially different from what you guys really have in mind; for the
moment I'm trying to pin down what you think is "really" going on, as opposed to
a more abstract picture in which time might be discrete). Then from what I
understand the output of F is determined by its input in the following sense:
If, for each moment t of time and input pin P of F, I know what signal was
present on P at time t, then for any time t I can determine what F's output was
at time t. This is correct, right? Well, assuming it's correct, what I'd like to
know is exactly how would that determination be made? I've heard the standard
spiel but I can't translate it into exact terms to my own satisfaction. For the
record, I understand that a flipflop has a characteristic amount d of time such
that it takes d amount of time for an input "cause" to be translated into an
output "effect", and that no effect results from a (putative) cause that doesn't
last for at least d amount of time.

Thanks for your attention.
Peace

PS: Also welcome are suggestions for alternate forum(s) where this question
might be posed.