categorical imperative

n. In the philosophical system of Immanuel Kant, the requirement on any moral law that it apply unconditionally and equally to all rational beings.

categorical imperative

n (Philosophy) (in the ethics of Kant) the unconditional moral principle that one's behaviour should accord with universalizable maxims which respect persons as ends in themselves; the obligation to do one's duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends. Compare hypothetical imperative

categor′ical imper′ative

n. the rule of Immanuel Kant that one's actions should be capable of serving as the basis of universal law. [1820–30]

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Noun

categorical imperative - the moral principle that behavior should be determined by dutymoral principle - the principle that conduct should be moral

categorical imperative

categorical imperative:

see Kant, ImmanuelKant, Immanuel
, 1724–1804, German metaphysician, one of the greatest figures in philosophy, b. Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Early Life and Works
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categorical imperative

see KANT, HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVE.

Categorical Imperative

a term introduced by the German philosopher I. Kant to designate the basic law, or rule, of his ethics. It has two formulations: “So act that you can will the maxim of your conduct to be a universal law” (Sock, vol. 4, part 1, Moscow, 1965, p. 260) and “So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in another, always as an end and never only as a means” (ibid, p. 270). The first of these expresses the formal conception of ethics that is characteristic of Kant, and the second places limitations on this formalism. According to Kant, the categorical imperative is a universal principle obligatory for all men, which must guide everyone, regardless of origin or social position. The abstract and formal nature of the categorical imperative was criticized by Hegel.

In discussing the postulates of Kant’s ethics, K. Marx and F. Engels wrote that Kant “made the materially motivated determinations of will of the French bourgeois into pure self-determinations of the ‘free will’, of the will in and for itself, of the human will, and so converted it into purely ideological conceptual determinations and moral postulates” (Sock, 2nd ed., vol. 3, p. 184).

REFERENCE

Williams, T. C. The Concept of the Categorical Imperative. Oxford, 1968.

categorical imperative

categorical imperative

categorical imperative

categor′ical imper′ative

categorical imperative

categorical imperative:

categorical imperative

Categorical Imperative

REFERENCE

categorical imperative

Words related to categorical imperative

noun the moral principle that behavior should be determined by duty

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