Descartes draws several conclusions from his wax example:

• What I know about wax is not what is what the senses tell me. (IP3 48a)
• Wax (and any other material body) is essentially just an extended thing. (IP3 48a)
• I know the wax not through sense and imagination but by my mind. (IP3 48b)
• I don't know material bodies as well as I thought I did. (IP3 47b)
• I know my mind better than I know material things. (IP3 49a)