Categorical Imperative

Student’s Name: Tutor: Class: Date: Categorical Imperative German philosopher Immanuel Kant acknowledged the elementary suggestion that a model of obligations- a set of guidelines informing individuals what they are obliged to do in any specific circumstances- was the correct method for solving ethical issues. However, what he set out to add was a stricter approach to the use of duties in an individual's normal experience. Kant wanted an approach to get such duties individuals have been discussing about to work collectively to create an integrated commendation rather than leaving people confused between loyalty to one code and another. In other words, he set out to generate ethical certainty. Kant says all this through his principle of categorical imperative, which he describes as commands or moral laws all individuals must comply with, irrespective of their wishes or justifying situation. The Concept of the Categorical Imperative Kant separates the concept of “categorical imperative” into two different principles: hypothetical and categorical (Johnson, 4). Hypothetical imperative is something that individuals wishes to do, but just in specific situations. For instance, they have to eat, but only in those situations where they are hungry. Such imperatives are conditional and rely on an individual's needs or goals. They usually define actions as means to realize explicit ends. On the other hand, categorical imperative involves something individuals wishes to do all the time (Johnson, 4). They are moral guidelines that do not rely on the situation and believe that categorical imperative is liable to tell individuals what they are. Formulation of the categorical imperative The categorical imperative comes in different versions, including the universal formulation and the formulation of humanity as an end in itself. For universal law, Kant states that individuals should "act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law” (Bagnoli, 179). This means that individuals should only act according to principles that might be adopted universally and deprived of contradiction. When individuals think of doing something, it means that they should imagine that everyone else did it all the time. In Kantian viewpoint, a truthfully moral act can develop into a universal regulation; a simply self-...