Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative

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Immanuel Kant insisted that the rightness of an action cannot be based on consequences that are actual or intended. This view is based on the concept of deontology, in which is the rightness or wrongness is not dependent on the consequences but rather it fulfills a duty morally. It gives the criteria of rightness and moral requirement actions are understood to be right or wrong in themselves. As Kant being a deontologist he believes that there is a supreme morality of principle, thus this principle is known as the Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative are moral requirements that are rationally independent of any condition and an unconditional moral obligation that is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on a person's …show more content…

It requires an individual to act in accordance with the maxim through which it can become a universal law. Through a test of universalization, a maxim is required to be morally right and required. Once a maxim passes its moral requirements then it is categorically imperative. The second way of the categorical imperative is where a specific maxim or action that actually meets the universalization test. Anyone can talk or act morally but it must be determined if that maxim is valid for the universalization test to become categorically imperative based on reason. If an action appears to be contradicting itself when being universalized therefore it is not considered a maxim or the kind of action that should not be morally permissible. One might commit an action and act based on reason but the action itself is morally wrong. According to Kant, a good person is an individual who does their duty because it is morally right. The purpose is to be a good person morally for goodness sake. The moral worth of an action cannot be formulated on any actions and its outcome because an action must be determined by the universalization test for it to be morally right and permissible to act based on