"Let us take, for instance, this piece of wax. It has been taken quite recently from the honeycomb... For whatever came under the senses of taste, smell, sight, touch or hearing has now changed; and yet the wax remains...
Perhaps the wax was what I now think it is...was a body that a short time ago manifested itself to me in these ways, and now does so in other ways."
Descartes speaks of the wax as if it were him or any individual. The notion that at one point there were certain characteristics in which pertain to his way of thinking and living and that although he/we may perceive himself/ourselves as differing from a past time, through his/our senses, he is/we are still himself/ourselves. This shows truth to his "I think, therefore I am" argument; That although we may change the way we think, change our opinions, change our physical features, change the way in which we act and react, change our personalities etc., we are still, by definition, Wax.
2 comments:
I think that wax in a way is saying that people can be shaped and formed into basically anything, they might look different, but will always be people. It is kinda showing how we are all unique but are also all the same.
All people are shaped and formed depending on what they are taught, what they experience & the outside influences they encounter. That's why it is important to reach your own determination of an items meaning, because it is done so through internal judgment & evaluation.
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