Lessons Learned from Descartes' Wax Example
Descartes draws several conclusions from his wax
example:
- What I know about wax is not what is what the senses tell me.
(P 231b)
- Wax (and any other material body) is essentially just an
extended thing. (P 231b)
- I know the wax not through sense and imagination but by my
mind. (P
232a)
- I don't know material bodies as well as I thought I did. (P
224b)
- I know my mind better than I know material things. (P 232bf)
Richard Lee,
rlee@uark.edu,
last modified: 12 March 2003