Example From Descartes Wax Example Reflects His View Of What Counts As Truth Or Reality?

Final Take Home Exam

1. Discuss the following example from Descartes explaining how this example reflects his view of what counts as truth or reality—make sure to account for how this example reflects the findings of all six Meditations, though the focus should be how this example illustrates what counts as “truth” and the method by which Descartes thinks we get to the truth of things and ourselves.

To begin to explain how Descartes’ wax example reflects his view of what counts as truth or reality we must first begin to understand the quote in itself. Through the complete wax example, Descartes describes looking at a piece of wax at two different points in time (Descartes, 11). The difference is that although it is the very same wax, it completely

He describes the different properties of the wax which one find’s out using the bodily senses. After which he brings the piece of wax against the fire, and as a result the properties he previously identified are altered. This is seen when he describes “But notice that while I speak and approach the fire what remained of the taste is exhaled, the smell evaporates, the colour alters, the figure is destroyed, the size increases, it becomes liquid, it heats, scarcely can one handle it, and when one strikes it, no sound is emitted. Does the same wax remain after this change? We must confess that it remains” (Descartes 11). At this point Descartes is putting emphasis on the fact that there remains a piece of wax, despite all the changes the wax has undergone. If you look at this from Descartes way of thinking, the truth is gotten when one suspends their belief in what we imagine or sense, and in this example even after being exposed to the fire, it still remains that the wax is wax and nothing else. The senses itself that Descartes

To Descartes, what counts as reality or truth qualifies as knowledge. However for it to be true, the argument or evidence you present would have to be so good that there would not be any possibility for any skeptical substitute, hence testing the wax in two states at two different times to be sure of what it is. In Descartes 1st Meditation, he poses a type of global skepticism in which all our beliefs are challenged. He argues that if he may simply be able to show that there is reason for doubting an opinion then he can put that opinion to the side and rule it out (thus being able to distinguish reality for non-reality and truth from lies). This type of ruling out can be done by observing and testing the very foundations to which we hold accountable for what is deemed real and what may be, and in turn rejecting them. In the above example Descartes using the senses to identify “flavor”, “sounds”, “color”, “scent” can be argued to be misleading at times. This is because to Descartes, we as individuals have no clear standard for differentiating between our our lives when we are awake and the lives we think we experience when we are asleep. However the fact is that whatever we may dream, Descartes argues that the founding elements of these objects in our dreams must undoubtedly have a origin/source/ basis in actual reality. These