The First Formulation
| “ | Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction. | ” |
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—Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals |
From this step, Kant concludes that a moral proposition that is true must be one that is not tied to any particular conditions, including the identity of the person making the moral deliberation. A moral maxim must have universality, which is to say that it must be disconnected from the particular physical details surrounding the proposition, and could be applied to any rational being. This leads to the first formulation of the categorical imperative:
- "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction."
Kant divides the duties imposed by this formulation into two subsets:
Read more about this topic: Categorical Imperative
Famous quotes containing the words the first and/or formulation:
“Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,—the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying out, or remain for the maturing of the higher. In the latest race, in man, every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from his fellows, are certificates of advance out of fate into freedom.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In necessary things, unity; in disputed things, liberty; in all things, charity.”
—Variously Ascribed.
The formulation was used as a motto by the English Nonconformist clergyman Richard Baxter (1615-1691)