Nor, again, is it employed on matters of detail, as whether the
substance before me is bread, or has been properly cooked; for these
come under the province of sense, and if a man is to be always
deliberating, he may go on _ad infinitum_.
Further, exactly the same matter is the object both of Deliberation and
Moral Choice; but that which is the object of Moral Choice is
thenceforward separated off and definite,[10] because by object of
Moral Choice is denoted that which after Deliberation has been
preferred to something else: for each man leaves off searching how he
shall do a thing when he has brought the origination up to himself,
_i.e_. to the governing principle in himself,[11] because it is this
which makes the choice. A good illustration of this is furnished by the
old regal constitutions which Homer drew from, in which the Kings would
announce to the commonalty what they had determined before.
Now since that which is the object of Moral Choice is something in our
own power, which is the object of deliberation and the grasping of the
Will, Moral Choice must be “a grasping after something in our own power
consequent upon Deliberation:” because after having deliberated we
decide, and then grasp by our Will in accordance with the result of our
deliberation.[12]
Let this be accepted as a sketch of the nature and object of Moral
Choice, that object being “Means to Ends.”
Chapter VI.
That Wish has for its object-matter the End, has been already stated;
but there are two opinions respecting it; some thinking that its object
is real good, others whatever impresses the mind with a notion of good.
Now those who maintain that the object of Wish is real good are beset
by this difficulty, that what is wished for by him who chooses wrongly
is not really an object of Wish (because, on their theory, if it is an
object of wish, it must be good, but it is, in the case supposed,
evil). Those who maintain, on the contrary, that that which impresses
the mind with a notion of good is properly the object of Wish, have to
meet this difficulty, that there is nothing naturally an object of Wish
but to each individual whatever seems good to him; now different people
have different notions, and it may chance contrary ones.
But, if these opinions do not satisfy us, may we not say that,
abstractedly and as a matter of objective truth, the really good is the
object of Wish, but to each individual whatever impresses his mind with
the notion of good.[13] And so to the good man that is an object of
Wish which is really and truly so, but to the bad man anything may be;
just as physically those things are wholesome to the healthy which are
really so, but other things to the sick. And so too of bitter and
sweet, and hot and heavy, and so on. For the good man judges in every
instance correctly, and in every instance the notion conveyed to his
mind is the true one.