To give context to the 'block of wax example,' Rene Descartes begins in First Meditation by acknowledging that his senses deceive him, and thus he doesn't have justification to trust his basic beliefs. He wants to find a 'certain and indubitable' (p 14) foundation from which to acquire knowledge and hang his belief systems. He finds first (and infamously) that he thinks, therefore he exists, and from that he concludes that the mind is better known than the body. We can be appeared to wax-ly, squarely, or spiral-ly for that matter, but because our senses have a history of deception, there is a veil of perception. Upon re-reading, please note that the rhyme scheme was unintentional.

Descartes acknowledges God as responsible for implanting our understanding of wax, and of course many other objects and ideas. The block of wax is an effective analogy to demonstrate Descartes use of the necessary existence of God to build a foundation towards the external world from our mind and thoughts.

Does this argument achieve what Descartes intended or desired it to show? I would assert that it does. The argument appears valid, but the other issue is that there is no way to experiment or replicate Descartes' thought process in real life. We cannot strip an unborn child of all of its senses and then determine whether or not it still has a concept of the essence of wax. By definition, human beings senses. We can intrinsically touch, smell, taste, see or hear (though not necessarily ALL of the above) extended objects around us. On the other hand, we also cannot disprove that we have an innate idea, implanted by God, of the ousia of thing

Some common words found in the essay are:
Rene Descartes, Med II, , descartes' argument, essence wax, existence god, properties wax, wax example,
Approximate Word count = 650
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)