Kant's Categorical Imperative

Immanuel Kant persuades that an individual must “act only according to that maxim by which he can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” (G 421/39). Thus, the philosopher’s claim is that before acting one has to check whether his interests are not above those of another party. This law is a test for matching or not matching the categorical imperative. Immanuel Kant developed a teaching about morality which he called Universal Law. Even though Kant argued to create a formula for testing whether an action can be called a moral one, contradictions to his law still remain. Kant’s formula delivers different results depending on how the maxims are formulated. This essay aims to examine the theory in depth and define the key

According to Kant, a categorical imperative is his own concept in the ethics theory which means the highest morality (4:416). This term describes a person’s set of duties and responsibilities, and what he/she ought or ought not to do. Since humans belong to a special place in the world, the morality can be concluded as an imperative or an ultimate rule of reason. Therefore, it applies to everyone and requires a fulfilment of a necessary action. Furthermore, it is called an imperative of morality because it does not take into consideration the result that follows a course of a given action. Instead, its rhetoric aims at identifying whether the action itself is the best alternative in general and if it benefits another person at least equally to the decision maker in

Besides, the Formula Law applies to situations when people other than the self are not involved. For such situations, Kant gives the example of a person wanting to commit a suicide because of his misery, saying that such a maxim (of one taking his own life) could never be made a universal law (4:422). Thus, Kant argues that a person should perform an action only if he wills that the maxim of the action should become a universal law; such actions come under the sphere of categorical imperatives which can help with practical application of moral decisions.

However, there are a few weaknesses in Kant’s Formula of Universal Law. One of the problems that appears in the test for moral actions is its formulation of the maxims: for a given circumstance, the formula delivers different results depending on how the maxims are formulated. For instance, a family is hiding a Jewish person from Nazis and is confronted by the authorities who demand information regarding a runaway. In a given situation, different maxims could be formulated before making a decision (Kant’s