The Sweet Goth household has been main-lining Buffy lately, and the question regarding Buffy's relationship -- or refusal to have one -- with Spike has been under discussion. Her main stated reason for refusing to return his love (although she returns his attraction) is that he has no soul. What he does have is the chip that prevents him causing direct damage to humans. Of note is that he has no conscience as well: witness him as the Dr. willing to sell demon hatchlings to foreign governments. Yet I maintain it as inarguable that he does love her. He demonstrates his love by taking care of her irritating sibling Dawn, assisting the Scoobie gang in any way he can, and in his willingness to sacrifice his first love, Drucilla for her. He is even willing to fight to get his soul back if that will make her willing to love him. Spike is capable of love. Isn't the ability to love the main part of having a soul?
Yet the eternal triangle maintains that she loves Angel, the vampire with a soul -- a soul not attained by personal choice; it was a curse that returned it to him, a punishment for killing a gypsy girl and meant him to suffer. And with the return of his soul, his conscience came too. When in season two he loses his soul and becomes Angelus -- a true menace who murders at least one of her friends -- she doesn't stop loving him. He is a soulless monster that she refuses to kill until truly forced in order to save the world. His soul and his conscience are intertwined, and when he is Angelus, he has neither.
Okay, good enough. One loves where one loves, right? But are the soul and the conscience the same thing? Can one have a conscience without a soul or a soul without a conscience? I personally know several people who have no consciences yet who would, I am certain, maintain they have souls. And since they are still; technically alive, they must still have souls?
Is the problem with Spike more a problem of science running headlong into metaphysics? The chip can force him to amend his behavior, but it can't make him want to do what it forces upon him. It can't humanize him into caring about people much beyond the sphere of his beloved. But the cursed soul restored to Angel is metaphysics running into metaphysics. He is forced to have a conscience.
Okay, I am stumped. So what do you think about the question: Is the conscience the same as a soul?
