René Descartes is a philosopher who is known for his contributions to the field of philosophy, particularly his ideas about the nature of reality and the mind-body relationship. One of his most famous arguments is the wax argument, which appears in his Meditations on First Philosophy.
The wax argument is an attempt by Descartes to demonstrate that the senses are not a reliable source of knowledge. In the argument, Descartes considers a piece of wax, which has certain properties such as shape, size, color, and texture. When the wax is placed near a fire, its shape, size, and texture change, but its color remains the same. Descartes concludes that the wax is still the same substance, even though its appearance has changed.
Descartes argues that the senses can only provide us with information about the appearances of things, not their true nature. He asserts that the mind, on the other hand, can grasp the true nature of things through the use of reason. For Descartes, the mind is the only reliable source of knowledge, as it is not subject to the limitations of the senses.
The wax argument has been the subject of much criticism and debate over the years. Some philosophers argue that the argument relies on a narrow definition of the wax, and that it is possible to know the true nature of things through the senses. Others argue that the argument relies on a dualistic view of the mind and body, which has been challenged by modern developments in neuroscience.
Despite these criticisms, the wax argument remains an important part of Descartes' philosophy and continues to be studied and debated by philosophers today. It highlights the importance of reason in the pursuit of knowledge and the limitations of the senses in providing us with a complete understanding of the world around us.
Philosophy:Wax argument
Since I know I am a thinking thing, and know that my body and my mind are two separate things, I can conclude that I am not a bodily thing. The reason self-confidence is an issue for me because I am so focused on what I want from the future, that I do not think about the things that I have already accomplished. Descartes rejects all the premises and holds innate into question. Scholars agree that Descartes recognizes at least three innate ideas: the idea of God, the idea of finite mind, and the idea of indefinite body. Through Descartes argument, I have come to understand that our mind is unique in every way and has the ability to perceive and learn far greater than one can imagine. Because things such as pleasure, pain, thoughts, and emotion do not occur physically, but rather in the mind, his conclusion was that they are two separate things. The categories are determined by what appears to him to be differences with respect to the origins of their contents.
What does Descartes mean by the wax example? [Answered!]
Although we are using our senses to interpret the change of the wax, we still see it change physically. Although he believes that humans must trust their senses to understand the obvious, he believes that not all perceptions can be trusted as bodily senses can be deceptive to internal understanding. Therefore, FC I can grasp the essence of the wax by pure reason alone. In other words, is there any way of knowing what is certain and what is not? We must confess that it remains; none would judge otherwise. Cartesian Ontological Argument 1294 Words 6 Pages Of all the recurring questions of Man, one of the most persistent is the question of our origins. Descartes first considers all the sensible properties of a ball of wax such as its shape, texture, size, color, and smell.
Instead to grasp the essence of the wax, it must be done through pure reason: We must then grant that I could not even understand through the imagination what this piece of wax is, and that it is my mind alone which perceives it. Descartes uses an example saying that if someone believes the God exist, anyone can then believe or do anything they can imagine. From our class conversations, I realized that this was not just a piece of wax, but how I have prior knowledge of things. He puts them together, so to speak, out of other ideas that he already possesses. In this essay, we will look into the claim that the senses are not to be completely trusted and only clear and distinct ideas are certain. Towards the end of the 2nd meditation there is a famous passage in which Descartes describes an object and the way it changes. So, in this method of doubt, he was conceiving of his mind as existing, but of bodies as not existing.
The perception is reduced to a minimum, and only the deduction is to be applied while considering this issue. He wouldnt be able to find that out without seeing, feeling or hearing the change?. A6 If I can grasp the essence of the wax, I can grasp it by imagination, by sense, or by pure reason. This therefore undermines Descartes dualism and gives little credibility to the idea that the mind could exist without the… Descartes Wax Passage Analysis Later in his second meditation, as Descartes begins to doubt his own conclusion that he exists as a thinking thing, he goes into an elaborate analogy known as his "wax passage". He saw the wax as more than what his senses allowed him to see, he absorbed every crevasse of the simple piece of wax.
Does the same wax remain after this change? Specifically the question of what, if anything, caused us to exist. Certainly nothing remains excepting a certain extended thing which is flexible and movable. To be as meticulous and scrupulous as Descartes himself previously , how do we know that thoughts are, in fact, a projection of the human mind? This idea relates to the mind or the self being the starting point for knowledge, leading to an investigation into its nature. We constantly go to the mind to determine what the inherent quality of the thing is that makes it that thing. This view is known as mind-body dualism. Some of the ideas are controversial. The last category of idea is also unproblematic, for he can easily account for them again by an appeal to himself.
Substance dualism, or Cartesian dualism, most famously defended by René Descartes, argues that there are two kinds of foundation: mental and physical. Last September on Labor Day I worked a particularly long event at Great American Ballpark, a mascot t-ball game, which required that I be on the field for over two hours. A6 If I can grasp the essence of the wax, I can grasp it by imagination, by sense, or by pure reason. But Descartes' concern for this clearest at lines 10-11 from the bottom of 32. The meaning of the experiment is not only for the wax, but for the material in general.
As described, its physical appearance is what helps distinguish what it is, so what he does is completely change what is, at first, described through the senses. But they also require an assumption that has not yet been made explicit: A2 Whatever aspects of a thing disappear while the thing remains cannot be the essence of the thing. The Meditator is firm in his resolve to continue his search for certainty and to discard as false anything that is open to the slightest doubt. Because he clearly and distinctly perceives that he is a thinking thing, he is certain of that fact. Find Out How UKEssays. Would that be a more accurate way of saying things? You then turn off common sense and watches the wax melt down. However, it remains that piece of wax.
People can perceive objects as they are and to consider them in their initial appearance. Therefore, the ideas in his mind and the physical object outside of his mind are cohesive to one another. This clear and distinct perception is an important component to the argument that Descartes makes in his fifth meditation for the existence of God. He seems to want to explain that the mind in itself is independent from the body. Descartes Evil Genius Argument Essay 2229 Words 9 Pages I. Why is the wax important in Descartes second meditation? No matter what he said or did to the wax, it still remained a piece of wax. He adopts this strategy in the Meditations on First Philosophy, where he raises sweeping doubts with the famous dream argument and the hypothesis of an evil demon.
If we do this, we can also help ourselves in the process and feel fulfilled. Descartes defines extension through his understanding of matter, which he believes has spatial extension, and is what takes on true form and essence. If, for example, one was to take a hallucinogen and then observe a tree, one would still clearly see that the tree is made of matter and takes up space, but one might not see the tree as brown with green leaves, but rather as some sort of swirl of colors that is not a real representation of the object. Works Cited Descartes, René. This example makes me think that the mind cannot exist without the senses, which in turn becomes the body. He used his senses to establish a basic outline to what it was.
