Descartes: Wax Argument Descartes Philosophy Heavily Deals

Descartes: Wax Argument

Descartes philosophy heavily deals with the "thinking thing," of perception and knowledge, and the correlation of the two. Like Plato's views on knowledge and opinion, Descartes concludes that human perception -- or opinion, according to Plato -- is faulty. However, unlike Plato -- who takes sense-perception in stride and allows the use of it to gain knowledge -- Descartes discards sense-perception, determining that it is an unreliable path to true and ineffable knowledge. In Meditations II, Descartes further discusses this argument using the changing of wax.

Prior to his examples with the wax, Descartes has logically deduced that he is a "a thing which thinks," and through that realization a thing that thinks has the inherent ability to "doubt, understand, conceive, deny, will, refuse, which also imagine and feel." In order to affirm his being a thinking thing, he examines the example of a wax, where he brings forth his argument about a thinking being's intellect. A wax is put forth over a fire, where it gradually changes shape over a period of time, gaining with it a different set of properties. It is still a wax, though Descartes argues that this realization does not necessarily come from one's perception of the wax melting into a different shape. How does one know what shape the wax forms at the end? Descartes heavily argues that said wax can take on an infinite number of shapes, far more infinite than one's imagination over possible forms.

What then did I know so distinctly in this piece of wax? It could certainly be nothing of all that the senses brought to my notice, since all these things which fall under taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing, are found to be changed, and yet the same wax remains. (Meditations II)

Descartes argues that sense-perception cannot be reliable as a means of determining the existence of an object. As a thinking thing, everything else is unknown and nonexistent, and the mind and intellect are the only proofs of one's existence. In the same vein, Plato agrees that there is a distinct divide between one's sense-perception and the knowledge inherent in a thinking being. Plato's Republic undergoes to argue over the difference between knowledge and opinion. To Plato, knowledge is the certainty discoverable from within, whereas opinion is one's imagination, unreliable and a mere "shadow" of the real world. In this case, both philosophers perceive that knowledge or intellect is certain. Both acknowledge that sense-perception opinion leads to false truths.

They differ, however, in both the origin of knowledge and the steps leading to the realization of said knowledge or intellect. Plato believes that knowledge is derived from principles set upon the idea of the Good -- the sun in one of his allegories. Descartes, on the other hand, believes one's knowledge can be determinedly based upon the intellect of the self. Plato understands that perception can still be an important stepping stone into fully gaining knowledge of an object; his dividing line as illustrated in The Republic mentions and acknowledges opinion as part of the realistic world. Descartes dismisses sense-perception entirely, claiming that it is a human failing and filled with falsehoods.