Sometimes, solving this kind of problem is clear and rather straightforward, as one can just follow the desire by its strength or its relative importance to the person. Oftentimes, the strength and relative importance seem to have equal significance, which puts the person in a situation of not knowing how to make a choice. This conflict amongst other desires can only happen when different desires of action compete for the person's action. The conflict of second-order volitions occurs because one wants a desire of actions to be his will and because one wants a specific desire to become their will. In this special situation, when the will is not sure of what it desires, the person uses rational thinking to sort through the problem and to reason the right choice to make their desire their will.
Plato, the great Greek philosopher, further expounds on the procedure of how reason effects will in his books, The Republic and Phaedrus. In the Republic, he makes the case that the person's soul is divided into three parts, the rational, the spirited and the appetitive; all of these have a certain desire that they follow. The appetitive, the desire for pleasure and survival, aims for the physical objects of desire. This kind of desire compels the person to want to eat and to satisfy their bodily needs. The spirited, the desire for passion, and victory, focuses on honor and loves courage. The last desire, the rational, is the reasoning part of man and is the part that loves truth and wisdom. Since it sounds confusing and complicated, Plato uses an allegory to clarify the details. In Phaedrus, Plato explains that the three parts are like parts of a chariot: the charioteer, the white and the black horse. The charioteer is the rational part; the white horse the white horse the spirited; the blacks horse the appetitive. Each part has a say in where the chariot goes, but the main part of the whole system according to Plato is lead by the charioteer (Plato 246a).
