Changeability

If something is changeable, it has the property of being able to change its shape. The suffix ‹-able› indicates that there is a possibility for transformation. But it remains open when and where the transformation takes place. The crucial questions are why change will take place and what will come of it. In arriving at a final state, several stages of transformation may be traversed, or the changeable may be in constant motion or change. When it comes to the point of transformation, existing certainties break up and something new arises. The change of shape can lead to a shape that suits the circumstances better than the original (as in Ovid's Metamorphoses). Beck describes our world as being in a phase of metamorphosis that results in an ‹epoch-making change in worldviews› and that ‹sets in motion hitherto unshakable certainties. They metamorphose and transform. [...] through which we launch into something that obeys a completely different logic. We become part of a world that is fundamentally different from what we believe and expect.›