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Moral law

Title page of the Critique of Practical Reason (1788)
Image: Immanuel Kant · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The fundamental law of pure practical reason: it commands acting only on maxims fit to serve as universal legislation.

In the “Critique of Practical Reason” Kant states the moral law thus: “So act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle of a universal legislation.” It determines the will through the form of maxims alone — independently of all empirical ends.

The law, Kant holds, cannot be derived from anything else: our consciousness of it is a “fact of reason” that forces itself on every rational being. In the famous conclusion of the Critique, Kant places it beside “the starry heavens above me” — as “the moral law within me”.

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Maxim Tester

Take Kant's own examples step by step through the test of the categorical imperative.

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Where it appears

Source: Wikipedia: Moral law