Wax

A detailed Summary of Wax

Nothing has ever progressed without building upon the less advanced that existed before it. Everything needs a step upon which to climb and build the next level, continuing forever an endless staircase. Knowledge is no exception, in that it too requires building upon the fundamentals in order to ascend towards the Truth. Building each step requires a pursuit for knowledge through persistent questioning, and ultimately finding a faultless answer. Humanity has progressed only because each person has built upon that which they know, and has questioned every aspect of life. It is this sequence of inquisition and answering that have plagued man since the beginning of time. Rene Descartes introduced a branch of epistemology based on this principle. Descartes required a foundation upon which he could build his knowledge on. He set forth to determine the essential properties by which we define our material world. He theorized that any belief that could be doubted was not cert!

ain, and therefore could not be true. In a particular passage from Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes argues that senses of the body are unable to perceive anything, and that it is only the mind that can do so. He determines this through an "expe

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From Descartes' argument so far, we can easily see his stress on the mind as the focal point of intellect, and the senses/ imagination, as the weaknesses, or impeding obstacles to the "truth". It would be very difficult for an empiricist to absorb such a statement. What is the mind without the senses? The mind alone is nothing. It is like a computer processor, with no keyboard, no monitor, and no on and off switch. Like this, the mind cannot evaluate anything without the senses. Animals of all kinds have very distinct and special senses, some more refined than others. So what a human perceives on one level, perhaps another animal sees on another level. For example, a blade of grass is very different for the human than it is to the insect, but does that mean that the grass is not really grass, or that the object differs because of perspective? In order for a philosophy to hold true, or any theory for that matter, it has to withstand the challenges not only of the ph!

The Wax Argument was intended to show how true knowledge was based from the intellect, not the senses. This type of justification known as A priori is how Descartes explained the results of the experiment. The dichotomy of this is known as empirical justification. Empiricism is an epistemological position that emphasizes the importance of experience and denies, or is very skeptical of, claims to A priori knowledge or concepts. Empiricists believe that true knowledge is based on sense experience rather than reason. Descartes' Wax Argument presents a problem for empiricists in that it concludes that the senses can be fooled, and that only by rationalizing can one determine the essential properties. This creates a schism in philosophy when arguing how to determine the essential properties. This creates a schism in philosophy when arguing how to determine the essential properties of things. The empirical point of view would argue that Descartes' conclusion of the wax arg!

er makes a sound when struck". (Descartes, 120). Descartes finds that there are no remaining properties that the wax once had. He ponders what there

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Approximate Word count = 1477
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History