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Essay / Analysis of Descartes' Wax Argument for the Existence of God
Descartes' example is simply about the difference in mass that a piece of wax can have; we may perceive it as one thing when in reality it can be seen as much more. Descartes uses a simple piece of wax as an argument for consideration and reflection. He believes that to make an unbiased observation of the wax, perception and feelings must be removed. Descartes therefore takes this piece of wax and begins to describe its main obvious characteristics; taking into account the texture, size, shape, color, odor of the wax and any other characteristics exhibited by said wax. After describing wax, Descartes was able to form a clear idea of what wax was, but once he melted the wax, it 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 general point about the piece of wax. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Although the wax did not appear to be the same from its outward appearance, it was the same, it had undergone a process of change causing its indifferent appearance. The wax has been melted and therefore has technically lost all of its initial conditions, but yet the wax remains the same piece of wax; it gets to the point that when a person thinks about a piece of wax, he does not use his sensory abilities. Overall, Descartes uses the word wax to refer to something that is much more, something that goes deeper, something like space itself. The piece of wax has undergone 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 sensory, but rather "the result of a purely mental inspection" because he draws the complex conclusion that to take an object into consideration, we must see it as much much more than a simple object. He saw the wax as more than his senses allowed him to see, he absorbed every crevice of the simple piece of wax. At first his senses showed him one thing, but as he began to burn the piece of wax, he saw something completely different. He therefore fully understood the concept of wax rather than simply using the illusions demonstrated by his senses. Descartes knows that objects are in fact changeable, no matter what the senses say, we are aware of such objects through our knowledge that we can grasp such "grasping". We know our minds better than all the objects we accompany. The wax example shows Descartes that the mind can find a way to put aside emotions and judgment, while at the same time our mind perceives us falsely and tricks us into thinking something that is not. not true. We rely solely on our senses which can easily disappoint us: “when we perceive an object like the piece of wax, there is an act of judgment involved in our perception. I do not see the piece of wax – I deduce that it is there from the appearances provided by my senses.” Therefore, when someone takes an object into consideration, they focus too much on their specific perception of said object, thinking of the object as simply an object describing/discussing its fundamental characteristics. Even though we use our senses to interpret the change in wax, we still see it change physically..