Paper Summary:

A paper which explores philosopher Immanuel Kant's theory which is expressed in his book "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals - Deriving the Moral Law" where he guarantees a surefire formula we should apply for every decision we make. What is absolutely right and wrong (morals) by Kant's definition are exclusively an idea from pure reason and not from anything we experience in the natural world. Therefore a pure, universal moral law is "indispensably necessary" to allow for morality to live up to its name without any influence from our fallible empirical inclinations. His theory is examined by answering several questions pertaining to modern life.

From the Paper:

"This supreme principle of morality is called the Categorical Imperative. Categorical means it is universal, and imperative means that it is absolute and must be done for its own sake. It is used by the will to determine the right action for every situation. The will is important, because the good will is the only thing without qualification that can be good. If it is the only true good thing, then it must be the basis for all good actions. Kant states that we have a duty to follow what we determine is right by reasoning. So the next piece of Kant's philosophy is to explain how to go about this reasoning using the Categorical Imperative."

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