 Cohen’s emphasis on the universal character of ethical laws is clearly Kantian in spirit, and he certainly intends the universal laws of an ideal state to be the laws people must give to themselves in Kant’s realm of ends. But still, it is not obvious how exactly to characterize the relation of Cohen’s ethics to Kant’s. On one plausible reading of Kant, a general theory of the moral will was the basis for his theory of law in the Doctrine of Right. But on Cohen’s view of how to apply the transcendental method to ethics, ethics begins with a theory of law from pure jurisprudence and then, by reflecting on pure law, it seeks to construct a general theory of the moral agent and its will. Thus Cohen’s account of the foundations of ethics might differ fundamentally from Kant’s—indeed, it might turn Kant’s account on its head.