CATEGORICAL.— V. PROPOSITION.
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE (Imperativ kategorisch).—The direct command «Thou shalt,» of the Moral Law.
«Such an Imperative as represents an action to be in itself necessary, and without regard to anywhat out of and beyond it» (Semple’s translation of The Metaphysic of Ethics, new ed., p. 27). «An imperative, which, irrespective of every ulterior end or aim, commands categorically» (ib., p. 27). «The representation of an objective principle, so far as it necessitates the will, is called a Commandment or Reason, and a formula expressing such is called an IMPERATIVE» (ib., p. 25). |
This formula Kant presents in three forms:—(1) «Act from a maxim at all times fit for law universal» (13); (2) «act from that maxim only when thou canst will law universal» (34); (3) «act as if the maxim of thy will were to become, by thy adopting it, a universal law of nature» (34). All three forms point to universality as characteristic of the Ethical Imperative, the first expresses the authoritative in the law; the second indicates that the Will must be its own legislator; and the third, that the imperative belongs to the fixed law of nature.