Will and Duties Towards Others

Rational agents are equal before Kant's Moral Law. Hence, the distinction that he draws between duties towards oneself and duties towards others is problematic within his system. The very distinction between self and others presupposes a principle of Differentiation in Experience, i. e. Will. On that basis, the fundamental duty towards another consists in a cultivation of respect for them qua other, i. e. a cultivation of Will as being-towards-others. Non-interference in the Freedom of another is one expression of that respect, to which the closest that Kant can approximate is non-interference in the Freedom of a rational being, who must remain anonymous, according to his rational principle.