“So what was it in the wax that I understood with such distinctness? Evidently none of the features which I arrived at by means of the senses; for whatever came under taste, smell, sight, touch or hearing has now altered—yet the wax remains.”
The wax is a body that ‘presented itself’ to Descartes ‘in these various forms’ earlier, and is now ‘exhibiting’ other forms. The central problem of Cartesian metaphysics has got to be this: what sort of body could there be that has no sensible properties necessarily/essentially? Aren’t bodies just those things that are extended? How can an extended thing not have any sensible properties, and yet have causal powers to ‘make’ itself present this way or that?
And if the intellect is able to grasp this true ‘formal object’ (my label, for now), aren’t we simply talking about some kind of a mental substance—perhaps a non-thinking thing that is thought, a thinked thing (sorry)?
(It’s remarkable that two centuries of metaphysics are traceable to these few paragraphs that every undergraduate has read. Make that four centuries, depending on your view of Kripke and (David) Lewis.)
What impresses Descartes as most mysterious about the wax, it seems, is that it is capable of an infinite number of different extended states:
“I would not be making a correct judgement about the nature of wax unless I believed it capable of being extended in many more different ways than I will ever encompass in my imagination. I must therefore admit that the nature of this piece of wax is in no way revealed by my imagination, but is perceived by the mind alone.”
Oddly, though his point goes to mental architecture, it has the metaphysical implication that bodies are extended in an infinite number of ways, outrunning our sensory apparatus and imagination, and are only catchable by our intellect. The oddness is that, by making the intellect a transcendental requirement for any sensory experience that may contribute to knowledge, Descartes seems to be making bodies essentially un-extended, or perhaps pre-extended, and throwing into doubt the ability for bodies to play any causal role in nature.
I’m anticipating another look at this in meditation 5.
Posts
Line Bundles on Complex Tori (Part 4)
1 day ago
2 comments:
"What impresses Descartes as most mysterious about the wax, it seems, is that it is capable of an infinite number of different extended states:" -ST
I found this comment to be of particular interest because I feel it applies to the entry I had just posted also regarding D's Wax example.
Personally, I felt that the Wax could be interchangeable for modernization purposes to interpersonal relationships & general human expectations.
-Each person (just as is the wax) has an infinite amount of possibilities; either in the sense of a person's ability or in their actions & reactions to situations or people. Depending on your experience, ability, desire, etc. you are able to reach a different level or state of development or disintegration.
When I look at the wax example by Descartes it makes me think about the infinite number of objects that this applies to. A change in form doesn't mean the object never existed. Descartes also recognizes that he can not doubt this. However, he doubts whether we are real? Can't we be as the wax paper was? Can't our bodies take a different form yet still be recognized as a real thing? What if our thoughts are as thw wax paper and take various forms that we are not yet aware of. When someone is cremated, there body is no longer in the same form but we can't doubt it existed. Descartes definitely doesn't apply the wax paper theory to the human body.
Post a Comment