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the Second Meditation. Be sure to discuss how this argument addresses the paradox with which the passage starts. Is this argument really about wax? Explain. Descartes is trying to establish his mind more clearly through the wax.
He does not yet know what he is. He is still trying to find what "I" am he doesn't know. He discusses the characteristics of the wax, its color, shape, smell, taste, feel, and how it sounds. He also discusses how when he places it over fire all of these characteristics change, yet the same wax exists. He understands the wax with his mind, and he uses his senses to learn of its characteristics even though with the wax these characteristics change. He understands this substance as wax; even as its characteristics change, he uses his senses to get his information, but he uses his mind to process and understand this information.
The paradox of the whole passage is the fact that even though he can know about the physical world, we can understand it he can not be sure of its existence, yet he can proof the existence of the mental world and yet he does not know much about it. The argument is not really about wax at all, the wax is used as a tool to look back at himself, he is introspecting, or looking in on his own self. Even though the argument talks about the characteristics of the wax, he is only using that as a mirror into his own mind. He was able to prove that his mind exists because he could understand the wax, what it really was, not its characteristics. Wax takes many forms, if he wanted he could bend and mold it into an infinite amount of shapes more than he could even imagine.
The wax is not its smell, it's not its feel, or its taste, or the sound it makes, the wax is wax, a substance that he can not even be sure exists but can understand it and in so doing can define his own mental existence. He believes that there are three possible things, his own mind, the outside world, and God, he uses the outside world (the wax) to look in on his mind. His mind is able to understand the outside world and so he can understand what his mind is more through his interpretation of the wax. The wax is not what this argument is about it is about his own mind and realizing that it exists. 3. Consider the following: (a) 2 + 2 = 4. (b) My body exists. (c) My mind exists. (d) God exists. > From Descartes's point of view, rank these beliefs from the most to the least foundational. Give reasons for your ranking.
There are a few ways of looking at this; one is to start with the mind. The mind could first easily and without argument. Descartes starts out is his meditations proving that his mind exists. He is quick to discard the physical world, anything that he may get from his senses because he could simply be dreaming.
He is able to prove that his mind exists, but at first that is it. His mind is all that exists at first, from that he is able to prove that God exists. In proving that God exists he is able to go on and prove that the physical world exists. This means that God could also be placed first on this list. I guess that it depends on the question as to how you would rank them. I think that I would have to go with his mind as number one, he proves that first and uses that to help prove the existence of God, so in terms of which is more foundational the mind is before God, even though God is more important to prove everything else.
Obviously since I decided to go with the mind over God, God would have to be next in line. I think I already explained that. Picking number three is not so easy, you could say that my body ranks third. In so doing you would have to say that the body is more important than the idea of 2 + 2 = 4. You could say that, the body is higher in importance, but as far as Descartes would say as most foundational I believe that he would say 2 + 2 = 4 would come first.
Think about it, you could image a world without you body but can you imagine a world without ideas such as 2 + 2 = 4? Have you ever imagined a world without hypothetical situations? It is pretty difficult for the idea of 2 + 2 = 4 not existing and is a lot tougher to come up with than thinking about the body not existing. I can imagine the my body does not exist very easily, what if this whole world is just a computer program and my mind is the only thing that is real in it. I can imagine that all of this is just like in The Matrix, with our whole lives being made up.
It is not that hard to imagine and I think that is why that movie did so well. People identified with it, that proves that it is not hard to imagine, but even in that computer driven world there were mathematics, two plus two still equaled four. I cannot think of a possible example of this not being true. Descartes would rank these in this order I believe, my mind, God, 2 + 2 = 4, and my body.
I'm sure that there are differing opinions, but in terms of being foundational this is my belief.
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