Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Key to abbreviations and translators
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The context for Kant's moral philosophy
- Part I The nature of morality
- Part II The moral norm for persons
- Part III The norm for moral judgment
- 11 The Categorical Imperative
- 12 The Formula of Autonomy or of Universal Law: Part I
- 13 The Formula of Autonomy or of Universal Law: Part II
- 14 The Formula of Respect for the Dignity of Persons
- 15 The Formula of Legislation for a Moral Community
- Part IV Kant on history, politics, and religion
- Appendixes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
11 - The Categorical Imperative
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Key to abbreviations and translators
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The context for Kant's moral philosophy
- Part I The nature of morality
- Part II The moral norm for persons
- Part III The norm for moral judgment
- 11 The Categorical Imperative
- 12 The Formula of Autonomy or of Universal Law: Part I
- 13 The Formula of Autonomy or of Universal Law: Part II
- 14 The Formula of Respect for the Dignity of Persons
- 15 The Formula of Legislation for a Moral Community
- Part IV Kant on history, politics, and religion
- Appendixes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
Kant's primary purpose in writing the Groundwork was to “seek out and establish” the ultimate principle of morality – to formulate that principle and to show that we are bound by it. It is understandable, then, that he devotes more space in that book to the Categorical Imperative than to any other topic. He offers three different formulas of that law, but because there logically can be only one ultimate moral law, he also asserts that the “three ways of representing the principle of morality are at bottom merely so many formulations of precisely the same law” (Gr. 79/436; see 51–52/420–21, 57/424, 79/436, 88/440; Lect. 252/11). Nonetheless, each of the three formulas emphasizes a different aspect of the same moral law. (See Gr. 80/436.) The value in offering alternative versions is to help “reason attend, as Socrates did, to its own principle,” particularly by making the very abstract first formula more appealing (Gr. 21/404; see 79–81/436–37).
Kant believed that its very formality makes the first formula the most precise, enabling it best to exhibit what it means to say that morally acceptable maxims must be fit to serve as universal laws. (See Gr. 80/436.) The second turns out to be as formal as the first, but it emphasizes what Kant nonetheless calls the “matter” of moral principle – persons and their worth. The third combines the first two and sets out the complex, social nature of our final moral goal. (See Gr. 70/431, 80–81/436–37.)
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- Information
- Immanuel Kant's Moral Theory , pp. 149 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989