Rethink.

Note: Major edit­ing com­plete 8/01/07. It is now pos­si­ble to learn from this essay. The whole of Kant is con­cerned with alien­ation. Man is alien­ated from the earth — he returns to it on its terms, and no earthly enter­prise is guar­an­teed suc­cess. Fur­ther, if rea­son can be said to be char­ac­ter­is­tic of divin­ity, man is …

What makes Kant’s short essay remark­able is the light it sheds on Rousseau’s “gen­eral will.” For Kant, rea­son is the gen­eral will — hence, Rousseau’s talk of a leg­is­la­tor begins to make more sense. There can be one per­son who under­stands what is best for the many; the trick is to bring the many to that …

“That kings should be philoso­phers, or philoso­phers kings is nei­ther to be expected nor to be desired, for the pos­ses­sion of power inevitably cor­rupts reason’s free judge­ment.” — Kant, Per­pet­ual Peace Kant is an amaz­ing thinker, but this quote is nowhere near sub­tle enough to get at the truth. The truth is that some­one must always …