The philosophical problem of change is one of the oldest and most persistent in philosophy, and attempts to explain what change is in the world around us.
We previously mentioned that what prompted philosophizing was wonder, especially wonder at change, that things change from being to non-being and vice versa. The seasons change, water transforms into snow, and a novice becomes an advanced skier. But, why did this change occurs? What is it meant by that? Is it that there is nothing other than change? Is it true that change remains constant due to its permanence?
According to Aristotle, change is the realization of potential. Change involves both the loss of one form and the acquisition of another. According to Aristotelian logic, movement is equivalent to change, the realization of a potentiality.
The aforementioned logic distinguishes substantial change, resulting in the transformation of the substance into a new form, through generation, which necessitates the emergence of a new substance, and corruption, which implies its demise. Accidental changes would occur without the substance changing.
By extrapolating these concepts to our subject, the substantial change that we would undergo in our approach to skiing would be deemed significant or essential, whereas an accidental change would not significantly alter our conduct.
One of the most famous philosophical expressions was that of Heraclitus: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man”. It is similar with us: we cannot go down the same slope twice because the conditions will have changed, just as we will have changed. The slope remains consistent, although is constantly changing. The river symbolizes change, like the ski slopes, i.e., that constant becoming.
We have just mentioned that it is impossible to ski the same slope twice, but why is not the same slope? In reality, it is the same slope, but its snow is always different. And what defines a slope: its steepness or its snow? If it is the inclination, then it is always the same slope; if it is its snow, then the slope is never the same, it is always being other.
Just as it is not possible to ski the same slope twice, we cannot expect two changes of direction to be the same, as the slope’s surface is not identical since it changes slightly or markedly every meter, and our body experiences variations in muscular, tendon, and joint tension and relaxation. It is possible that the person observing us will conclude that we are doing the same thing, but surely we do not perceive it that way.
As we have mentioned, all change involves opposites as to be and not to be, that is, all change involves the same dynamism of alternating and complementary moments. According to the principle of Parmenides, the decision would be either it is or it is not, without a third possibility.
We cannot be identical to ourselves, since we are all the time being others. We are changing because we cease to be what we were at every moment. Our skier’s self is a project that we construct from our mind, and we learn to build it through our sensitive experience. If we perceive ourselves as a fixed skier’s self, we may experience discomfort as skiing undergoes continuous changes, and we pretend that everything remains constant. We do this to protect ourselves from skiing incidents. When our skiing is adverse, it is because it is challenging us to change.
We are discussing how changing implies ceasing to be, i.e. ceasing to be in order to become something else. Every ski day commences anew, with distinct variations in snow, weather, as well as our mood. Each descent is unique and unrepeatable because the trajectory changes, and the turn itself changes between its beginning and its end. This cycle is repeated over and over again. The only constant in skiing is that everything changes, and if everything changes in the background, then the whole skiing changes.
The only thing that is permanent is change. In other words, the only thing that does not change is change. We can suppose that everything that has a certain permanence has it in appearance, since what seems permanent is an illusion, since it hides a change so slowly that it is difficult to perceive it.
To be skiing is the very representation of changing. We feel change as the most immediate, as what is already present, and we become aware of it. Skiing is a changing reality that immerses us in the environment and provides us with sensible impressions. This condition of change encompasses sensible and intelligible knowledge, unified as sentient intelligence that is constantly actualizing itself, but which has a previous being present.
This changing reality appears as feeling, as sensorially equilibrium in motion, but also in our orientation as a reality of going towards, being immersed in a becoming. Considered as a change from potency to action, our skiing ‘becomes’, our turns ‘become’, then, if there is change, there is becoming. In that transformation, there is an activity that is actively engaged; our skiing reality is active on its own.
As a final reflection, we build our skiing skills through the experience of change. The end point of one change in direction will be the point of origin of the subsequent change, and this change in direction cannot be identical to itself, as it is constantly changing, i.e., it is all the time being other.
