Change

We explain what change is in its various senses, according to philosophy and psychology. Also, currency exchange and social change.

What is change?

a change It is the action of transforming one thing into anotherabandon one thing or situation for another, or exchange something for another that is considered to be of similar value.

These are just some of the meanings associated with this word, linked to its everyday use and at the same time with specific uses, which we will detail later. The term comes from Latin I will change which in turn is derived from Celtic or Gaulish.

Since the beginning of humanity, change has been present everywhere we look, in nature, in the climate, in our own changing bodies, which grow, develop, age and die.

The change it is intrinsic to timeThat is, given an adequate amount of time, all things tend to change in one way or another. However, the periods necessary for this to happen can be very different, depending on whether we consider a rock, a cloud or a plant.

See also: Chemical change

Currency exchange

Like all commodities in the capitalist world, The currency of each country is subject to demand and supplythat is, to those who want to have it and those who do not, which determines, among other things, the relative value of each currency.

This means that any bill, check, deposit, loan or financial product, when changing from one currency to another, is undergoing a currency change, which affects its valueeither favorably (multiplying its value) or unfavorably (decreasing its value).

This relationship It is expressed in a convertibility ratewhich can sometimes vary and be free, and at other times can be more or less fixed, determined and held in place by non-market forces, such as the State. Thus, coins can be classified into:

• Strong coins. Its transit towards the others is usually favorable or very favorable all the time, such as the dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, etc.
• Weak currencies. Their transition towards others is usually unfavorable or very unfavorable all the time.

These types of changes can be carried out in various institutions, often having to pay a commission or tax for the transaction, or aiming for better and worse prices, as the case may be. We are referring to banks, exchange houses, money transfer services, or individuals.

You may be interested in: Physical change

Change in philosophy

Since the earliest forms of philosophy, change has existed as a counterpart to stillness and permanence. It has inspired in human beings feelings such as nostalgia, fear or fascination.

That everything changes is an idea quickly installed in the minds of humanity, and ancient philosophers, such as the Greek Aristotle, theorized about it, for example, distinguishing two forms of change in nature:

• The substantial change. Which involves radical alterations of substances, the two most notable cases of which are generation (birth, gestation, germination) and corruption (death, decay, rot).
• The accidental change. That barely alters an aspect or accident of the substances, giving them or subtracting some characteristic, but leaving their essence intact. This type of change can be local, quantitative or qualitative, depending on whether it involves respectively a movement from one place to another, the increase or decrease of its quantity, or the substitution of one quality for another specific one.

Finally, Aristotle also offers us four possible causes of all change, which are:

• The material cause. When it is due to mutations of the matter itself, such as decomposition or internal transformation.
• The formal cause. When it comes from the same and unaltered essence of the thing, but manifests itself in a change of form or apparent form.
• The efficient cause. When it is a consequence of the action of an agent on the matter, such as an acid that corrodes the metal or a sculptor who sculpts the block of marble.
• The final cause. When the transformation is undertaken with a specific goal in mind, that is, when there is a specific objective to achieve.

Social change

For its part, social change is the appreciable alteration of the social structures of a communityallowing the emergence of new forms of organization either gradually (reform) or violently (revolution).

This also alters social norms, popular values ​​and ways of carrying out the economy, among other things. It is usually the main driving force for political transits and large-scale socioeconomic readjustments.

A review of history is enough to observe the presence of social changes and the impact they have had on humanity's ways of living, as well as the multiplicity of factors that triggered them.

Its consequences can range from the fall of a social, political and economic regime (such as the abolition of the Old Regime during the time of the French Revolution of 1789), to the rearrangement and alteration of specific elements of it (such as the change of a system of government by another).

Social change is subject of study for sociology, anthropology, social psychology and other social sciences.

Change in psychology

In psychology, change is understood as a dynamic inherent to individuals, the result of complex processes of self-realization, trauma, or mutation and resistance to it. That is, change is understood psychologically as an adaptive process of the human mind.

That is to say, we are actually talking about adaptation to change, since the latter occurs in objective reality and requires, in this way, a similar change in the psyche. In that sense, learning (for better or worse) is nothing more than a form of change.

Depending on the nature of said adaptation, we can broadly distinguish two main forms of psychological change:

• The first order change. In which certain parameters of the psyche vary, but it as a whole or system remains more or less unchanged, that is, these are superficial or specific adaptations. This type of change occurs faster and more frequently.
• The second order change. In which the psychic structure changes qualitatively and discontinuously, that is, permanent, deep and structural. This type of change takes much longer to occur, or requires extraordinary events (such as structural trauma).

Climate change

We call climate change the variation of stable weather patterns over an extended period of timewhich can range from a few decades to millions of years.

It is usually accompanied by climatic readjustment processes that often involve extreme meteorological phenomena, with a high impact on the ways of life of flora, fauna and humanity.

References

• “Change” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• “The currency exchange” in Finance for everyone.
• “Change” in the Alicante Server Psychology Glossary.
• “Change” in Plethora, Psychological Dictionary.
• “Philosophy of nature: types and causes of change” in The Philosophy of Aristotle.
• “Change” in the Soviet Dictionary of Philosophy.
• “Social change” on Wikipedia.