  According to Butler, most of us can access what the right thing is to do in most circumstances, and most of us often wish to do the right thing when it doesn’t conflict with our self-partiality. But we are also susceptible to engage in self-deceit in order to justify acting on self-partial motives even when it conflicts with what is morally right. Butler illustrated this sort of self-deceit by reference to the example of Balaam, a prophet who had been asked to curse the Israelites by the Moabites. Even though God expressly forbade Balaam, he still considered cursing the Israelites when greater rewards were offered by Moabite ambassadors. The puzzle was how could Balaam know what was right but still be motivated to do what was wrong? Butler’s answer was not so much to try to solve the problem of akrasia as to describe the moral psychology of self-deceit.