, Descartes concludes the famous philosophical statement, I think therefore I am. Descartes rationalizes this postulation by understanding that I exist because I can think of the concept of an evil deceiver. The evil deceiver can deceive us in everything, or senses and our thoughts; but to deceive us in our thought, we must have to be thinking. In other words, there would not be an evil power capable of deceiving if there was no one to deceive. Now, although he is not yet sure of the existence of an external world, God, or anything outside of his mind, the conviction of his own thought can no longer be doubted. This truth now leads Descartes to question his relationship between his mind and body. With this truth that he exists, Descartes sets out at determining that the soul is a thinking thing, distinct from or without a body. In order to prove/disprove this truth, Descartes uses the only truth he has proved thus far; he focuses on the act of thinking and from this he postulates, "I am a thing that thinks, a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses, (156). Descartes asks us to consider a piece of wax as a metaphor for the body. This wax in its original form can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, and heard if struck, similarly to a body. Descartes further progresses the analogy: But notice that while I speak and approach the fire what remained of the taste (of the wax) is exhaled, the smell evaporates, the colour alters, the figure is destroyed, the size increases, it becomes liquid, it heats, scarcely can one handle it, and when one strikes, no sound is emitted, (157).This forces Descartes to ask, Does the same wax remain after this change? Descartes answers that if he relied on his senses to determine the answer to this question, the answer would be no; because according to all of his senses, the wax in its new form is nothing like it was in its original form, and...
