Descartes: Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 627 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1

Page 1 of 2

Descartes: Wax Argument

Descartes philosophy heavily deals with the "thinking thing," of perception and knowledge, and the correlation of the two. Like Plato's views on knowledge and opinion, Descartes concludes that human perception -- or opinion, according to Plato -- is faulty. However, unlike Plato -- who takes sense-perception in stride and allows the use of it to gain knowledge -- Descartes discards sense-perception, determining that it is an unreliable path to true and ineffable knowledge. In Meditations II, Descartes further discusses this argument using the changing of wax.

Prior to his examples with the wax, Descartes has logically deduced that he is a "a thing which thinks," and through that realization a thing that thinks has the inherent ability to "doubt, understand, conceive, deny, will, refuse, which also imagine and feel." In order to affirm his being a thinking thing, he examines the example of a wax, where he brings forth his argument about a thinking being's intellect.

Stuck Writing Your "Descartes: Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals" Essay?

View All Our Example Descartes: Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

A wax is put forth over a fire, where it gradually changes shape over a period of time, gaining with it a different set of properties. It is still a wax, though Descartes argues that this realization does not necessarily come from one's perception of the wax melting into a different shape. How does one know what shape the wax forms at the end? Descartes heavily argues that said wax can take on an infinite number of shapes, far more infinite than one's imagination over possible forms.

What then did I know so distinctly in this piece of wax? It could certainly be nothing of all that the senses brought to my notice, since all these things which fall under taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing, are found to be changed, and yet the same wax remains. (Meditations II)

Descartes argues that sense-perception cannot be reliable as a means of determining the existence of….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Descartes Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals" (2011, March 24) Retrieved May 21, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/descartes-wax-argument-descartes-philosophy-120514

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Descartes Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals" 24 March 2011. Web.21 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/descartes-wax-argument-descartes-philosophy-120514>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Descartes Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals", 24 March 2011, Accessed.21 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/descartes-wax-argument-descartes-philosophy-120514
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example