Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperatives
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, East Prussia. He was the son of a saddler. At age 8, he entered the Collegium Fredericianum, a Latin school, where he remained for 8 1/2 years and studied the classics. He then entered the University of Konigsberg in 1740 to study philosophy, mathematics, and physics. The death of his father halted his university career so he became a private tutor. In 1755, he returned to Konigsburg where he later resumed his studies. In 1756, he received a degree and was made a lecturer, and in 1770 he became a professor. Kant felt he had to adhere to a very strict schedule during his years as a professor. He would get up shortly before five in the morning and spent …show more content…
Imperatives in general are commands that dictate a particular course of action, such as "you shall clean your room." Hypothetical Imperatives are commands that depend on my preference for a particular end, and are stated in conditional form. The Categorical Imperative, Kant argues, are moral actions based on a "supreme principle of morality" which is objective, rational, freely chosen, and it is not conditional upon one's preferences. Therefore the Categorical Imperative can be the only possible standard of moral obligation. An example of this is two grocers in a town are John and Joe. John wants to keep his trade, so he insists on selling the best goods, giving the best service, being friendly and polite, and offering value for money. Joe does the same, not to keep his trade, but because it is what he should do. According to Kant, even though the actions are the same, John is acting immorally, according to the Hypothetical Imperative, while Joe is acting morally, according to the Categorical Imperative. For Kant, the act is not important. As long as you are acting from duty and the motive is right, the act must be right. However, the Principles of Universalisability puts a twist on this. It states that if an action is applied to everyone, and everybody did what you were about to do, it became immoral or hypocritical, and then your act would be …show more content…
There are a total of twelve Categories. Kant says that the categories are patterns of understanding by which we examine structure and understand the things that we experience. Synthetic a priori judgments consist in applying the Categories to sensory information in space and time, or the "perceptual manifold." Application of the Categories allows people to realize physical objects as capable of casual relations and interactions with other objects. Categories cannot be applied to knowledge or things that exist apart from space and time like
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, East Prussia. He was the son of a saddler. At age 8, he entered the Collegium Fredericianum, a Latin school, where he remained for 8 1/2 years and studied the classics. He then entered the University of Konigsberg in 1740 to study philosophy, mathematics, and physics. The death of his father halted his university career so he became a private tutor. In 1755, he returned to Konigsburg where he later resumed his studies. In 1756, he received a degree and was made a lecturer, and in 1770 he became a professor. Kant felt he had to adhere to a very strict schedule during his years as a professor. He would get up shortly before five in the morning and spent …show more content…
Imperatives in general are commands that dictate a particular course of action, such as "you shall clean your room." Hypothetical Imperatives are commands that depend on my preference for a particular end, and are stated in conditional form. The Categorical Imperative, Kant argues, are moral actions based on a "supreme principle of morality" which is objective, rational, freely chosen, and it is not conditional upon one's preferences. Therefore the Categorical Imperative can be the only possible standard of moral obligation. An example of this is two grocers in a town are John and Joe. John wants to keep his trade, so he insists on selling the best goods, giving the best service, being friendly and polite, and offering value for money. Joe does the same, not to keep his trade, but because it is what he should do. According to Kant, even though the actions are the same, John is acting immorally, according to the Hypothetical Imperative, while Joe is acting morally, according to the Categorical Imperative. For Kant, the act is not important. As long as you are acting from duty and the motive is right, the act must be right. However, the Principles of Universalisability puts a twist on this. It states that if an action is applied to everyone, and everybody did what you were about to do, it became immoral or hypocritical, and then your act would be …show more content…
There are a total of twelve Categories. Kant says that the categories are patterns of understanding by which we examine structure and understand the things that we experience. Synthetic a priori judgments consist in applying the Categories to sensory information in space and time, or the "perceptual manifold." Application of the Categories allows people to realize physical objects as capable of casual relations and interactions with other objects. Categories cannot be applied to knowledge or things that exist apart from space and time like