The central concept of Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals is
the categorical imperative. "The conception of an objective principle, in so far as it
is obligatory for a will, is called a command (of reason), and the formula of the command
is called an Imperative." (Abbott, 30) An imperative is something that a will ought or
shall do because the will is obligated to act in the manner in which it conforms with
moral law. The categorical imperative is an obligation by the will to act so that the
action can be classified as a universal law. When one acts in conformity with the
universal law at all times, they are following out the categorical imperative. This
differs from the hypothetical imperative in that the hypothetical imperative acts on the
basis that the will in the end will gain something (not a means to an end). The
categorical imperative is a means to an end, and the action to obtain the end must have
moral worth. Stipulations of the categorical imperative are that all actions should act
only on the maxim, that actions have moral worth, and the end is necessary. From these
stipulations, it can be derived that the categorical imperative should be followed in
order to live morally. "If an action is conceived as good in itself and consequently as
being necessarily the principle of a will which of itself conforms to reason, then it is
categorical." (Abbott, 32) "There is therefore but one categorical imperative, namely,
this: Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should
become a universal law." (Abbott, 38) The categorical imperative must be found A Priori
and it excludes all interests and desires.
Kant uses four examples to better describe the working of the categorical imperative in
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals. The first example is of a man who
is suffering from many misfortunes in life and wishes to commit sucicide on the basis of
self-love. Kant declares that this cannot be the categorical imperative at work because
the maxim derived from self-love, to shorten his life to avoid more pain, is a
contradiction in itself for no man can kill himself painlessly and therefore cannot be a
universal maxim. The action of killing oneself would cause pain, which is not in
conformity to the maxim stated to avoid pain. The second example Kant gives is based on
the basic premise of lying. A man is forced to borrow money which he knows he will never
be able to repay but he promises to do so anyway. This action is not consistent with
duty and the maxim could be expressed as: "When I [the man] think myself in want of
money, I will borrow money and promise to repay it, although I know that I never can do
so."(Abbott, 39) The maxim cannot hold as a universal law because if everyone lied about
promises, the promise itself would become impossible, and the end would be unattainable.
Telling the truth is an end in itself. The third example is of a man who it bestowed a
natural ability but does not use it to it's full extent. Kant sees this as not a
categorical imperative because a rational being necessarily wills that he develop his
skills for many possible reasons. Rational beings are an end in themselves, and if you
do not better yourself, you are not serving yourself.(Abbott, 40) Lastly, the fourth
man, in great prosperity, has a chance to help others in need and does not. This can be
viewed as a workable universal law, but it cannot be willed as the good thing to do
because if no one gave to society, society would not get the aid when desired. The main
basis of a categorical imperative is that "we must be able to will that a maxim of our
action should be a universal law."(Abbott, 41) A universal law where people betray the
rights of men or otherwise violates them, cannot be true.
The formula of the categorical imperative is to act so that the maxim can be applied as
a universal law. One must act on the maxim of the action as if it were a universal law
of nature. The principle that determines the action is not based on the goal of the
action but on the ability of the maxim to be universal.
From this paper, it was learned what Kant's categorical imperative is, how it is
derived, and some examples of the categorical imperative at work. According to Kant, all
actions of the categorical imperative should be able to conform to a universal law and
should be willed as well as obeyed by all.
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