The categorical imperative is the main ethic of Kant's ethics

Immanuel Kant is a German philosopher of the 18th century whose works revolutionized the theory of knowledge and law that existed then, in ethics and aesthetics, as well as in the notions of man. The central concept of his philosophical ethical theory is a categorical imperative.

It is revealed in his fundamental philosophical work Critique of Practical Reason. Kant criticizes morality, which is based on utilitarian interests and the laws of nature, the pursuit of personal well-being and pleasures, instincts and various feelings. He considered such a morality to be false, because a man who has mastered a craft in perfection and thereby flourishes may nevertheless be completely immoral.

Kant's categorical imperative (from Latin "imperativus" - imperative) is a will that desires good for the sake of good itself, and not for the sake of something else, and has a goal in itself. Kant proclaims that a man should act so that his deed can become the rule for all mankind. Only a firmly aware moral obligation to one's own conscience makes one behave morally. This debt is subject to all temporary and private needs and interests.

The categorical imperative differs from the natural law in that it is not external, but internal coercion, "free self-coercion." If the external debt is compliance with the laws of the state and obedience to the laws of nature, then for the ethical only "domestic legislation" is significant.

The ethical imperative of Kant is categorical, uncompromising and absolute. Moral duty must be followed constantly, always and everywhere, regardless of the circumstances. The moral law for Kant should not be conditioned by any external goal. If the old pragmatic ethics was oriented toward the result, to the benefit that that one or action will bring, then Kant calls to completely abandon the result. On the other hand, the philosopher demands a strict way of thinking and excludes any reconciliation of good and evil or some intermediate forms between them: neither in characters nor in deeds can there be duality, the boundary between virtue and vice must be clear, definite, stable. Morality in Kant combines with the idea of the divine, and its categorical imperative is close in meaning to the ideals of faith: a society in which morality dominates sensory life is the highest stage of human development from the point of view of religion. Kant gives this ideal empirically visual forms. In his reflections on ethics, as well as on the state system, he develops the idea of "eternal peace," based on the economic inexpediency of war and its legal prohibition.

Georg Hegel, a German philosopher of the nineteenth century, subjected the categorical imperative to severe criticism, seeing his weakness in the fact that he is actually devoid of any content: he must fulfill his duty for the sake of duty, and what this debt consists in is unknown. In the Kantian system, it is impossible to specify and define it in some way.