Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/117

 CHAPTER VII.

WILL AND CONSCIENCE.

§ 1. The Self as Purposive and Regulative. This chapter has been entitled "Will and Conscience," but we must begin by pointing out that will and conscience must not be regarded as separate faculties and powers. We often speak as if "will" and "conscience" were separate faculties with an existence and activity of their own apart from the self. "My conscience pricked me when I told that lie." "His will was too weak to prevent him yielding to the temptation to gamble." Thus we commonly distinguish the will and the conscience from the self, and we attribute to them an independent existence and independent activity. But this is quite wrong.

In reality, "will" and "conscience" are simply names which are given to certain aspects of the one self which is present in all mental behaviour and all moral conduct. We may consider the one self in different aspects and from various standpoints. We may consider it, in the first place, as purposive, as conative, as active. This is the self regarded as will. Or we may think of it as regulative, as reflective, as judicial. This is the self regarded as