Rene Descartes seeks to prove to himself that he exists, and he begins by determining that he is a thinking thing, focusing on the fact that he is a doubter. As a doubter, he proves his existence every time he doubts his thoughts. He also questions whether or not God is a deceiver, and by doing so he rationalizes that he must exist due to the fact that he can be deceived. For Descartes these facts alone are not enough to make him believe that he exists, so he dwells on the subject more intently. He begins to question his understanding of physical objects, specifically objects that can be touched or seen, in hopes of finding support for his claim of existence as a thinking thing. He chooses a piece of wax as an example, noting all of its perceptual characteristics:
Let us take, for instance, this piece of wax. It has been taken quite recently from the honeycomb; it has not yet lost all the honey flavor. It retains some of the scent of the flowers from which it was collected. Its color, shape, and size are manifest. It is hard and cold; it is easy to touch. If you rap on it with your knuckle it will emit a sound. In short, everything is present in it that appears needed to enable a body to be known as distinctly as possible. (Descartes 21)
Descartes takes the wax and holds it to fire, morphing its physical and sensible nature into something much different. He observes that even though all of the characteristics described above have changed, he still intuitively recognizes it as a piece of wax. "Does the same wax still remain? I must confess that it does; no one denies it; no one thinks otherwise" (21). Yes, the wax does remain the same wax, but it has taken on a different s ...