Categorical Imperatives

Thank you for writing to me about this. I know that you are in a difficult situation in your marriage and that it can be tough to know if an action is morally right. With that said, I cannot advocate your decision to have an affair no matter what the consequences are. My moral beliefs are centered on two rules that help me determine whether a decision is morally good or bad. Your actions are not morally right according to the two rules that I call the categorical imperatives and I would like to explain why. The first categorical imperative is act only according to the maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. Your actions have two beliefs that cannot become universal rules which are lying and cheating. I will look at lying as a universal rule first. If every single person had to abide by the rule that they had to lie, it would not even be possible. If every person lied every time they spoke there would be no such thing as the truth so it follows that there would be no such thing as a lie. If cheating became a universal rule it would have the same outcome. If everyone cheated on the person in their relationship, then there would not be such a thing as a monogamous relationship and there would also be no affairs. Both of these universal rules do not make …show more content…
Your relationship with S goes against this imperative which in my opinion makes the relationship immoral. You are using him as only a means to an end which in this case is to relieve sexual frustration between you and your husband. S is also using you for the same reasons but both of you in this relationship think of each other as having low value or being a tool to get what you want. This takes away from the amount of worth that we all individually have and it also takes away from what it means to be