Descartes' Meditation two is a work of reflection on the nature of existence of an intellectual being and what can be known.
by
kabloomybuzz (student)
Amy Fitzpatrick
Descartes’ Meditation two is a work of reflection on the nature of existence of an intellectual being and what can be known. Descartes concludes that more doubt can be cast upon the body than the mind. (Cottingham, 1993) This essay will explain the twelfth paragraph in meditation two beginning “Perhaps the wax…” (Descartes, 2006 p495) and discuss the thoughts and conclusions Descartes comes to and relate them to thoughts elsewhere in the passage.
Descartes uses wax as an object with which to clarify what he can know to be true about it. He begins by expressing what he can perceive about it through his senses – scent, flavour, structure, texture and appearance. (Sparknotes editors). He then melts the wax and considers that the way his senses perceive that each time the wax changes form from solid to liquid, each form seems to be a different substance. He cannot, however call into question that whether hard or soft, solid or liquid, this is the same wax regardless of the fact that its properties are changing.
Descartes goes on to assert that the wax cannot be defined by what he can perceive of it through his senses. As a result he decides that it also can’t be distinguished through his imagination. When the sensory properties of the wax are dismissed all that can be left to be said of the wax is that it is “Extended, flexible and mutable.” (Descartes, 2006 p495). The wax could potentially take on infinite forms, all of which could not possibly be shown practically. All of the infinite possibilities of the shapes and forms of the wax could not be conceived of through imagination, which means that the wax cannot be defined, understood or known through the imagination. However these possibilities can still be understood by the intellect.
