Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

because the ‘project’, or purpose, of piano-playing is morally neutral. Imperatives in general are commands that dictate a particular course of action. Hypothetical imperatives tell us what to do provided we have the relevant desires. We can escape this kind of imperative by giving up the relevant desire. Categorical imperatives, by contrast, tell us what to do unconditionally and are not based on subjective considerations. Formulations of what defines a categorical imperative can be summarised as follows:

The moral question must be categorical, not hypothetical.

Only act on a maxim that you can at the same time will to be a universal law.

Act so as to treat others and yourself always as ends, never simply as means to ends. (Because humans have intrinsic value.)

Looked at from Kant’s metaphysical terms, the categorical imperative is a synthetic a priori truth — at least for him! (As an aside here, it could also be mentioned that because Kant saw moral rules as ‘necessary’, that is, they could not be otherwise, he argued that therefore free will must exist. There must be an immortal soul (because otherwise the idea of continual moral progress is nullified) and: God must exist (because there must be some standard of perfection).

There are some obvious problems with Kant’s categorical imperative. Why should it be assumed that people should be treated as ends

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