categorical imperative

American  

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.

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categorical imperative British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of categorical imperative

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

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 • Sep. 28, 2022

There are two important formulations of the categorical imperative: the universal law formulation and the humanity formulation.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

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 • Sep. 3, 2021

“Here the categorical imperative applies—would you want everyone else to do what you just did, or would that be bad?”

From Slate • Apr. 9, 2018

All the air of the fourteenth floor was sibilant with the categorical imperative.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley