Categorical imperative
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Hitler has compelled humanity to accept a new categorical imperative: orient your thinking and acting so that Auschwitz would never repeat itself, so that nothing similar would recur."--Negative Dialectics (1966) by Theodor W. Adorno "The communitarian position has been stated most plainly by Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Sandel. MacIntyre engages the whole liberal, Kantian moral tradition, in which the account of justice has a prominent place. There is no categorical imperative, at least unless there is a categorical end to be achieved — the heteronomy that Kant rejected."--Natural Law and Justice (1987) by Lloyd L. Weinreb, p. 251-52 |
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The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern deontological ethics. Kant introduced this concept in Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Here, the categorical imperative is outlined according to the arguments found in his work.
Kant thought that human beings occupy a special place in creation and that morality can be summed up in one, ultimate commandment of reason, or imperative, from which all duties and obligations derive. He defined an imperative as any proposition that declares a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary. A hypothetical imperative would compel action in a given circumstance: If I wish to satisfy my thirst, then I must drink something. A categorical imperative would denote an absolute, unconditional requirement that exerts its authority in all circumstances, both required and justified as an end in itself. It is best known in its first formulation:
- "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
He expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the moral philosophy of his day because he believed it could never surpass the level of hypothetical imperatives. For example, a utilitarian would say that murder is wrong because it does not maximize good for the greatest number of people; but this would be irrelevant to someone who is concerned only with maximizing the positive outcome for himself. Consequently, Kant argued, hypothetical moral systems cannot persuade moral action or be regarded as bases for moral judgments against others, because the imperatives they are based on rely too heavily on subjective considerations. A deontological moral system based on the demands of the categorical imperative was presented as an alternative.
See also
- Ethics
- The Ethic of reciprocity or "The Golden Rule"
- Generalization (logic)
- Generalization error
- Hasty generalization
- Kantianism
- Kant's aesthetics
