Descartes Wax Argument Essay

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The Wax Argument In mediation two of Descartes, he gives an argument that only the intellect perceives bodies. We come across an argument called the wax argument. There is a piece of wax sitting on the table. The piece of wax is hard, has a specific shape, smell, color, and size. If the wax were on the table next to a fire, all the elements of the wax would change and are perceived differently in this state. Descartes argues about how we perceive the object, in this case the wax. He believes the senses don’t perceive the wax, and that the imagination also doesn’t perceive the wax, therefore, only the mind (the intellect) perceives the wax. The mind and the senses work different from each other and cannot both come to the same conclusion that the hard wax and melted wax are the same when they actually are. Descartes may be correct when he says that the mind perceives, in this case,…show more content…
In the wax argument, the solid piece of wax is melted by the fire. Descartes believes that our senses deceive us while the wax is melting because it has changed forms. The wax was once solid and is now liquid. In meditation one of Descartes, he comes up with a few reason to doubt the senses which go along with modes 1-7 in Sextus. An example of this would be touching something cold and mistaking is for something wet, or looking at an object in the dark and mistaking it for a person, when it’s actually a vacuum. Descartes says that we may be able to touch the wax and know what it is and understand it, but it could be an illusion to us. It is possible that the piece of wax was just an object that the senses made up that one you know of and is not real. He also thinks that we may be dreaming and since dreams aren’t real, the wax being held in the dream also is not real. The wax itself may be real, but you will not be holding the same piece of wax you were in your
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