categorical imperative

noun

1. Ethics. the rule of Immanuel Kant that one must do only what one can will that all others should do under similar circumstances.
2. the unconditional command of conscience.

categorical imperative

noun

1. (in the ethics of Kant) the unconditional moral principle that one's behaviour should accord with universalizable maxims which respect persons as ends in themselves; the obligation to do one's duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends Compare hypothetical imperative

Word History and Origins

Origin of categorical imperative¹

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

Another cited German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative” to treat humans not as a means to an end, but as an end in themselves.

From Los Angeles Times

If you pass through Rome, a visit to the poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, buried in the city’s Non-Catholic Cemetery, is a categorical imperative.

From New York Times

Having made his name promoting transparency in state accounts and other old-style mainstream Republican priorities, he now torques ordinary conservative dispositions into categorical imperatives.

From New York Times

This led him to a thought exercise known as the categorical imperative An action is right only if it is right for all people in all situations.

From Washington Post

In terms of German political thought, her lodestar has been Max Weber’s damage-limiting “ethic of responsibility,” not Immanuel Kant’s moralistic “categorical imperative.”

From Washington Post