categorical imperative
... From his analysis of the operation of the human will, Kant derived the necessity of a perfectly universalizable moral law, expressed in a categorical imperative. Kant never claims that he discovered the categorical imperative. However, he gives five different formulations of the categorical imperative, which is formulations of one supreme moral low, but not five different moral laws as some commentators have claimed. In this essay I will first, present the first statement of the categorical imperative that Kant gives , and second, I will briefly indicate what Kant says about a lying promise. In Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant argues that traditional ways of thinking of morality are wrong and it is only through the use of the categorical imperative that one can come to correct moral decisions. ... Kant offers three progressive versions of the categorical imperative on which all moral commands are based upon. He says “thecategorical imperative is limited by no conditions and can quite properly be called a command since it is absolutely, though practically, necessary” (417). The first statement of the caegorical imperative that Kant gives is “Act only according to that maxim wherby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” (421). The point Kant makes in his presentation of the categorical imperative is that an act becomes imperative (or commanded) when it ought to be applied to everyone, and a maxim is a rule that is followed in any deliberately intentional act.