 At the beginning of the Doctrine of Method (the last, least-read part of the first Critique) Kant alludes to the biblical story of  Babel.[8]  God punished the attempt to build “a tower that would reach the heavens” (A707/B735) with a confusion of languages, leaving people unable to understand one another and unable to cooperate in such hubristic  ventures.[9]  Again and again, reason returns to some very simple ideas with towering implications—the immortal soul, God, freedom; what is more, it cooks  up[10]  more or less convincing proofs of these. Without the acid test of experience of a common world, people are bound to come up with conflicting versions of these ideas (unless, perhaps, they emptily ape one another’s words without real understanding). Then they will either talk past one another, or fall into conflict—or, one of Kant’s abiding fears, be forced to submit to an unreasoned authority. In metaphysics, Kant refers to “the ridiculous despotism of the schools”  (Bxxxv).[11]  When we turn to the practical sphere, however, despotism is far from ridiculous: it is the last, brutal resort for securing coexistence among people who insist on conflicting doctrines. Thus Kant often alludes to Hobbes, on whose theory order is only possible if an unaccountable sovereign overawes all the members of  society.[12]  Saner 1967, O’Neill 1989, and Neiman 1994 all offer interpretations that see Kantian reason as securing intersubjective order and overcoming threats of Babel-like hubris, conflict and despotism.