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Kant's Categorical Imperative

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A Categorical Imperative is the origin of Immanuel Kant’s moral theory. According to Kant the Categorical Imperatives are commands you must follow, regardless of your desires. They are moral obligations, and Kant believed that they are derived from pure reason. It tells us what we ought to do and gives us a clear understanding in Kant’s opinion of what our duties are and are not. There are certain things that are duties that we ought to be doing for the sake of duty because they are the right thing and certain thing we ought not be doing. If we have a duty to tell the truth we also have a duty not to lie, because lying is immoral specifically because telling the truth is morally essential. The categorical imperative helps us figure out what …show more content…

The first formulation known as the universalizability principle. Kant phrased it this way, “act only according to that maxim which you can at the same time will that is should become a universal law without contradiction.” This means before I act, I would ask myself, what is the general rule that stands behind the particular action I am considering? Kant says we have to use our capacities as human beings to think about whether something is the right thing to do or not. If we imagine what it would be like to universalize something it becomes clear why it is or is not a good idea. Let’s say I forgot my purse at home this morning. I do not have time to pick it up between class and work, and I am very hungry. I over hear the security guard talking about how the cameras are down, so I could easily snag a sandwich from the cafeteria without anyone noticing. Would this be ok morally? The particular action I am hypothetically considering is taking a sandwich without paying for it, or stealing. If I approve the maxim of stealing, whether I admit it or not I am actually universalizing that action. I am saying that everyone should steal. If I should be able to do it everyone should. But this leads to a contradiction, because Kant’s wording specifically says that moral actions cannot

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The implication of this being that in order for an action to be moral why it is done must be able to be why it is done by anyone, anywhere, at any time. A clear example of this imperative comes when one considers lying. If one lies and presumes that lie to be moral, that lie must then be able to be made the universal law. If lying were the universal law one could not lie as lying relies on truth-telling as universal law to serve its function. In his second formulation, Kant states "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means."

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