Samir Obaido

Philosophy A

14 Dec, 2015

Object to Concept
Descartes argues that the mind is solely responsible for our perception
of things
In this reading, Descartes attempts to grasp how we recognize objects. He
does this by examining a piece of wax, both as it is at a room temperature, and as it
gets heated. He realizes that even though it has physically changed, the fact that its
a piece of wax hasnt. This is very similar to the discussion we had about Heraclituss
statement you could not step into the same river twice, where we concluded that
changes in the material of the river doesnt translate to changes in a fixed concept
that we have in our minds. This fixed concept does describe fixed abstract properties
about the object, which are mutability & flexibility in the case of wax, and freshness &
flow in the case of a river. This rationalistic approach is in contrast with empiricist
thought which seeks to explain objects through their particularities.
Word Count: 143

Extra:
I feel as though the limitations that are present in language and terminology
were factors in creating such an argument. I say this because were it the norm to
have a word for each particular instance that an object goes through, and were we to
have the mental and logical capacity to actually use these words in a dynamic
fashion, we wouldnt be arguing over mere names, and thus, focusing our attention
on the ultimate issues were trying tackle in philosophy, but I could be wrong.