Explain Kant’s categorical imperative Essay

Kant is an 18th century German philosopher who wrote the book Groundwork for metaphysics. The book deals with his system that morality is a priori celluloid (a priori is a statement that is knowable with come out of the closet reference to any experience and synthetic heart having truth or falsity can be tested using experience or the senses) and that moral decisions should be taken with a cosmopolitan view to ones duty to serviceman as a whole. He laid out his ideas about the prostrate arrogant in this book. An imperative is a statement of what should be done.The philosopher Hume said that you cant get a should statement out of an if statement. This means that experience can only give us hypothetical imperatives ( non moral commands to the go forth they argon if statements and do not apply to everyone and you only need obey them if you want to achieve a current goal, for modelling, if you want to be healthy then you should exercise and eat a balanced diet). A categorical imperative is a should statement, but it is not based on experience, and doesnt rely on a particular outcome. According to Kant, categorical imperatives apply to everyone because they are based on an objective a priori faithfulness of reason (an objective law is something that is f setually true).The categorical imperative is one principle with terce formulations The world-wide Law, treat military soulfulnessnel as ends in themselves and locomote as if you live in a body politic of Ends. The natural law is to act according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law and what it says is that everyone should universalise their maxims without contradiction for an imperative to be categorical or deontological it mustiness consist of principles that can be applied in any situation.This basically means that in front you do something you should ask yourself if you would like everyone in the same situation. If not, then you are involv ed in a contradiction and what you are thinking of doing is wrong because it is against reason. Kant uses the example of a suicidal man as an example A man feels sick of life and wants to commit suicide. His maxim is that from self-love I want to shrink my life if its continuance threatens more evil than it promises pleasure. He asks himself whether he would universalise this law, his answer is no because it is valet de chambre duty to stimulate the furtherance of life and to destroy life would contradict itself and therefore is entirely contend to the supreme principle of duty.The second principle is to treat humans as ends in themselves so act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, never whole as a means but always as an end. Kant argues that all humans are searching for the summam bonum (a state in which human virtue and delight are united).Kant believes that we all have an god soul and because of this immortal soul, humans deserve special treatment and that we should seek happiness as persistent as this happiness does not infringe on other humans ability to seek happiness and this means that we should not exploit others or treat them as things to achieve an end, as they are as rational as we are. To treat another person as a means is to deny that person the right to be rational and case-by-case judge of their actions. It is to make oneself in some way lord and different. An example could be having a get offual relationship with someone if you have only have sex with someone because you want something from them and not because you love them.The final principle is to act as if you live in a Kingdom of Ends Kant said act as a legislating member in the universal Kingdom of Ends. This means that everyone should act as every other person were an end a free, independent agent. Kant believed that each person is independent and moral judgements should not be based on any verifiable consideration about human nature, hu man flourishing or human destiny. What this means is that every case-by-case has the ability to understand the principles of pure practical reason and follow them.Pure practical reason must be impartial and so its principles must apply equally to everyone. An example of this is if youre trying to try if it would be justified to kill someone who was threatening your family using Kantian principles you should not kill them. performing according to the third principle (and taking the first and second into account) murder can obviously not be universalised or humanity would be wiped out, and killing the man threatening your family is treating him as a means (to saving your family) rather than an end a human seeking summum bonum.In conclusion, there are three different formulations for Kants categorical imperative The Universal Law, treat humans as ends in themselves and act as if you live in a Kingdom of Ends. Together these three formulations seek to allow humans to make moral deci sions which do not infringe the happiness of others but also allow us to progress to perfection.