Politics

In this system of government, the executive and legislative branches are separate. For Kant is was not important so much who has the power, but rather that the person with executive power is doing so for the general will. In Kant's theory, the executive is subordinate to the legislative. He was not so much concerned about what the law should be but rather how it is administered. He believed that the laws should be administered equally to all people, similar to his categorical imperative. This system also required representatives who would agree to represent in the spirit of the general will. They would govern society with rules which the people could impose on themselves. It was not a form of direct democracy, but rather a representative democracy where the representatives were acting according to the general will. There was a danger that the general will can become obscured. Kant was fearful of democracy in this sense. He felt that it had the most potential to become despotic. He argued that for a society like this to work laws must be representative of everyone. He also claimed that there must be avocation of free dialogue to push people towards a higher morality. Free dialogue pushes people towards maturity and pushes people to contemplate their own maturity.

Kant relied on the ability of humans to understand the moral duty as rational human beings. He concluded by saying, "And thus while we do not comprehend the practical unconditional necessity of the moral imperative, we yet comprehend its incomprehensibility, and this is all that can be fairly demanded of a philosophy which strives to carry its principles up to the very limit of human reason."(FOOTNOTE END CONCLUSION) He was content in the conclusion of The Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals to claim that even if we are unable to completely understand the categorical imperative, we at lease have an introduction to his philosophy. A reader of Kant's moral philosophy comes away from the experience learning that there is a possibility of a moral self. The rational moral self can then realize the moral duty t