A nation is not (like the ground on which it is located) a possession. It is a society of men whom no one other than the nation itself can command or… - Immanuel Kant

Thus, if materialism is inadequate to explain my existence, then spiritualism is equally insufficient for this purpose.

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.

"A good will is good not because of what it effects, or accomplishes, not because of its fitness to attain some intended end, but good just by its willing, i.e. in itself; and, considered by itself, it is to be esteemed beyond compare much higher than anything that could ever be brought about by it in favor of some inclinations, and indeed, if you will, the sum of all inclinations. Even if by some particular disfavor of fate, or by the scanty endowment of a stepmotherly nature, this will should entirely lack the capacity to carry through its purpose; if despite its greatest striving it should still accomplish nothing, and only the good will were to remain (not of course, as a mere wish, but as the summoning of all means that are within our control); then, like a jewel, it would still shine by itself, as something that has full worth in itself".