Consciousness, Practice, Language

What distinguishes Kant's concept of a General Will from any of its rivals is that it is expressed verbally, i. e. as the Fundamental Principle of Pure Practical Reason, and essentially so, because it functions prescriptively in the determination of conduct.  Furthermore, his concept of Individual Will is similarly verbal, expressed as Maxims.  Now, his concept of Consciousness as primarily Practical is preceded by Spinoza's, but the concept of it as fundamentally linguistic is innovative, anticipating developments of almost a century later.  So, in his system, Consciousness is not only fundamentally Practical, but social because verbal, a concept which plainly escapes the notice of Marx-Engels even though they are familiar with it.