The categorical imperative idea was introduced by Immanuel Kant in 1785 in his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals book. Before I get into what his categorical imperative is all about, let me tell you how Kant saw morals. Kant believes that there are different motives that pull at our human will making us take different paths or choosing different ways to do things. He then goes more into depth saying that there are two classes of morals, selfish decisions and rational obligations.
Unfortunately us being normal human beings most of our morals are more on the selfish side and as long as we choose to indulge in our selfish ways, they are not moral. We instinctually put ourselves first, but we should be choosing the rational choices more often because they are morally correct. If everyone in the world was selfish we would not be the advanced race that we are. So for example, if you find a dog and see a poster that offers a reward for returning the dog it is selfish because you get something out of return the dog and it isn’t considered moral. Even though the action appears to be for a moral reason, it hides the selfish intentions behind returning the dog home. Another example would be if you found a cure to AID’s and you decided to …show more content…
The first one is that Kant believes that for an idea to be a moral choice, it must have some rationally to it because morality includes what is necessary for humans to do (and only rational thoughts are strictly necessary). Secondly, he thinks that moral choices with rational motives behind them must be in the design of a rule since human reason works by giving out rules. Thirdly, the rules must be in the form of a forceful mandate because morality includes commands like not to be a thief. For example, he believes that it is not rational to commit suicide because we would be wasting the life or talent that we each individually
Unfortunately us being normal human beings most of our morals are more on the selfish side and as long as we choose to indulge in our selfish ways, they are not moral. We instinctually put ourselves first, but we should be choosing the rational choices more often because they are morally correct. If everyone in the world was selfish we would not be the advanced race that we are. So for example, if you find a dog and see a poster that offers a reward for returning the dog it is selfish because you get something out of return the dog and it isn’t considered moral. Even though the action appears to be for a moral reason, it hides the selfish intentions behind returning the dog home. Another example would be if you found a cure to AID’s and you decided to …show more content…
The first one is that Kant believes that for an idea to be a moral choice, it must have some rationally to it because morality includes what is necessary for humans to do (and only rational thoughts are strictly necessary). Secondly, he thinks that moral choices with rational motives behind them must be in the design of a rule since human reason works by giving out rules. Thirdly, the rules must be in the form of a forceful mandate because morality includes commands like not to be a thief. For example, he believes that it is not rational to commit suicide because we would be wasting the life or talent that we each individually