Force, General Will, Pure Practical Reason

Kant's concept of Pure Practical Reason is inspired by Rousseau's notion of a 'general will', and his concept of Autonomy potentially clarifies one of the apparent difficulties entailed in the latter, i. e. how the expression of collective interest does not suppress the interests of the individuals who comprise that collective.  He could, for example, follow Spinoza, and analyze Autonomy,say, as the mutual enhancement of forces inhering in differing locations.  However, by admitting a supernatural entity into the collective, as its ruler, Kant not only converts a Democracy into Kingdom, if not into a Theocracy, but transforms his initial concept of Autonomy.  For, what begins as a struggle of Reason against external influences gets re-configured, by the introduction into scheme of a power to choose between the participants in that struggle, a power which, as independent of them, can have only a supernatural origin..  Accordingly, what begins as Rousseau's innovative concept of political self-rule, ends, in Kant's oeuvre, i. e. in Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, as a traditional theological 'problem of Evil'.  Kant, thus, squanders an opportunity to join Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza, in grounding Political Philosophy in Reason.