Organism and Society

Entailed by Kant's Moral Theory is a concept of a society that he initially describes as a 'Kingdom of Ends'. Two main characteristics of this society are that the activity of each member is guided by an ideal of the whole society, and that each acts to benefit others as well as oneself. Later, in his study of Teleology, he calls this a concept of an 'Organism', and is there primarily concerned with showing how the concept of reciprocal beneficially guides our investigation of Nature. But, he also very briefly notes that Political Theories have occasionally been Organistic, without any explicit citations. Surely Plato's Republic, with its interactive components analogized from a person's, and possibly Rousseau's society, governed by a General Will, qualify as Organistic, whereas, Locke's polity, in which association is based on self-interest alone, might not. Kant further marvels that while hitherto, as of the 1780s, Organic polities were primarily abstract ideas, the newly-born United States of America is the first actualization of such an idea. However, with the predominance of the Principle of Self-Interest in contemporary society, it is difficult to apply Kant's insight to the current U. S. In any case, the Evolvemental concept of the best society is Organic, in the Kantian sense, with an advantage, that Kant lacks, of having the resources of Evolutionary Theory to help show that such a society is also a growing society.