Explain Descartes(TM) wax argument and evaluate the conclusions he draws

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Explain Descartes’ wax argument and evaluate the conclusions he draws

Through his wax argument, Descartes has sought to analyse how we know or at least claim to know things. Descartes illustrates his argument using a piece of wax and from this is able to draw his three conclusions, namely that objects are made of an ‘essence’/material substance, which he then goes on to explain the properties of. He also concludes that we know objects through our intellect and that his knowing of the wax proves his existence.

Descartes uses a piece of wax to help examine how we know things. At first Descartes describes the properties of the wax; it is hard, it smells, it has taste, shape and size. He knows these properties through his senses. However when brought near to fire, a heat source, these properties change. The wax melts and so is soft, it smells differently, has a different taste, it expands and so has a different size, it also changes shape as it melts. All of the properties we identified in the wax have changed, yet we still know that it is the same piece of wax. Therefore two questions are brought about, what is the wax? How do we know the wax?

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The answer to the first question is that the wax is a material thing/substance that can change. The answer to the second question is that we cannot know the wax through our senses as the properties have changed but we still know it to be the same piece of wax. Descartes says that we therefore know the wax through our intellect (mind). The only characteristics that remain after the change of the wax are that it is extended, flexible and changeable. We learn this through our intellect and it “is perceived from the mind alone.” To recognise a substance ...

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