Topic > Analysis of Descartes' Wax Argument for the Existence of God

Descartes' example simply concerns the difference in mass that a piece of wax can have; we can perceive it as one thing when in reality it can be seen as something more. Descartes uses an ordinary piece of wax as an argument about considering and reflecting on things. He believes that to make an impartial observation of wax it is necessary to remove perception and feelings. Therefore, Descartes takes this piece of wax and begins to describe its obvious main features; taking into consideration the consistency, size, shape, color, odor of the wax and all other characteristics exhibited by said wax. After describing wax Descartes managed to get a precise idea of ​​what wax was, but once melted the wax gave light to another substance. Descartes made it clear that the melted piece of wax was in fact still the same piece he started with, but now had a new shape, size, texture, color and smell which was his overall argument about the piece of wax. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although the wax did not look the same from its outward appearance, it was the same, it had gone through a process of change which caused its indifferent appearance. The wax has been melted so technically it has lost all of its initial conditions, but nevertheless the wax remains the same piece of wax; this gets to the point that when a person thinks about a piece of wax, they are not using their sensory abilities. Overall Descartes uses the piece of wax to refer to something that is much more, something that goes deeper, something like space itself. The piece of wax has gone through an ordeal of changes, but people are probably aware that such changes have occurred or are occurring. Descartes concludes that his "grasping" of the piece of wax is not sensorial, but rather is "the result of a purely mental inspection", because he reaches the complex conclusion that to take an object into consideration we must see it as much more than a simple object . He saw more of the wax than his senses allowed him to see, he took in every crevasse of the simple piece of wax. At first his senses showed him one thing, but when he began to burn the piece of wax, he saw something completely different, so he fully grasped the concept of wax rather than simply using the illusions demonstrated by his senses. Descartes knows that objects are indeed changeable, no matter what the senses say, we are aware of such objects thanks to our knowledge we can grasp such "grabs". We know our mind better than any object we carry with us. The wax example tells Descartes that the mind can find a way to put aside emotions and judgment, while at the same time our mind falsely perceives us making us think something that is not true. We rely solely on our senses which can easily fail us, “when we perceive an object such as the piece of wax, there is an act of judgment involved in our perception. I don't see the piece of wax, I deduce that it is there from the appearances provided by my senses." Therefore, when someone considers an object, they are overly focused on their specific perception of said object, thinking of the object simply as an object that describes/discusses its basic characteristics. Even if we use our senses to interpret the change in the wax, we still see it change physically. Descartes sees it melt, smells the change in its fragrance, and yet the wax always remains the same piece of wax, no matter what the.