ABSTRACT
In the remaining part of the wax discussion, Descartes tries to derive the further significant conclusions that the nature of the wax has been understood all along ‘by the mind alone’ (F. entendement), rather than by imagination or sense. This conclusion in turn is related to the question of what constitutes a ‘distinct’ perception of the wax-and also, implicitly, to the issue of the nature of the mind itself. Thus, he goes on to argue that the wax, considered now only as something extended, flexible and mutable, is understood as having a capacity for innumerable changes: it is conceived as admitting of more variations than have ever been encompassed [complexus] by the imagination.
