Descartes' Second Mediation-Essay on Wax Within Descartes' Second Mediation, two types of philosophical ideology are in conflict with each other, including both empiricists and rationalists. Empiricists believe in knowledge through experience while rationalists believe in knowledge derived from logic. Descartes uses the idea and concept of "wax" to understand on what basis the reality of wax is. Is it really wax? How do you know wax is wax when it no longer looks, smells or feels the same? Descartes uses his rational mind to help him understand how he knows that wax is truly wax even when it is melted. I believe in rationalist ideology more than empiricists because I value knowledge through logic more than knowledge through experience. I prefer to use my judgment on an unknown object rather than experiment with what the object might be. For example, I would rather know that a chair is a weapon based on judgment about that chair in the context in which it is used, rather than relying on my senses and experience. Although I consider the empirical way of thinking, knowledge through experience, to be of great value, I believe that the rational way of thinking allows for a better understanding of both ideas and objects thanks to the importance of judgment. The ideology behind the empiricists comes from the Latin words, a posteriori. A posteriori describes the knowledge they gain through experience. For example, if you stand on the sidewalk of a street and get splashed by water, you will learn to stay further away from the road so you don't get splashed next time. Apart from gaining knowledge through experience, they also believe in knowledge through the senses. Nice... in the center of the paper... the melted wax no longer felt, smelled or sounded like the solid form of the wax. Therefore the senses and discredit the validity of the wax. However through judgment we can confirm that the molten wax is the same wax observed before it was melted. Although I believe that both ways of thinking are more or less useful in certain situations, I would support the rational way of thinking, thinking based on logic, to a higher level. Rational thinking allows us to make judgments about ideas and objects that we have yet to experience, it allows us to have a better chance not only of living but of making better hypotheses and choices. Rational thinking allows us to make judgments about substances and determine the validity of both ideas and objects, which allows us to both see the differences in things like hot wax and wax and see that they are essentially the same thing.