Episode 78: Stephen Engstrom discusses the categorical imperative
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What is the categorical imperative and why is it central to Kant’s ethics?
Hey, Matt Techman here from Elucidations. Before we get going today, I just thought I'd ask, if you're a fan of the show, to maybe go to our iTunes page and leave a rating and a review, and that way more people can discover it. Alright, thanks.
Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I'm Matt Tykman.
And I'm Francie Russell.
With us today is Stephen Engstrom, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and he is here to discuss the categorical imperative. Stephen Engstrom, welcome.
How does Kant define the categorical imperative as a non‑conditional moral command?
It's not very nice to be here.
The categorical imperative was sort of the centerpiece of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Kant thought that this was the most basic principle from which all of the rest of ethics was derived. What is the categorical imperative exactly? What does that say?
Well it's um A term that Kant uses to characterize the single principle of morality which he sets out in his practical philosophy. He speaks of a categorical imperative specifically to mark certain features of this fundamental principle. It's an imperative, he says, meaning thereby that it consists in a kind of command to us as moral persons, a command that's issued by reason. Um he takes the principle of morality to be a principle of reason. And he calls this command or this imperative categorical to indicate that the requirement that it consists in is not conditional or dependent upon any special interests or objectives that this or that person might happen to have. It's a command that pertains to us all simply in virtue of being persons or beings who have some share in the capacity of reason.
That's what the phrase is intended to signify.
Okay, so it's called imperative because it's a rule for us to follow and we're commanded to do it. It's something we have to follow. And it's called categorical because it applies equally to everybody in different circumstances. It's not like it just sometimes applies and sometimes it doesn't, you know. It's not like accidental events will determine whether or not it's a rule we should follow. No, it's a rule we always should follow.
What role does reason play in Kant’s moral theory and how does it generate universal requirements?
And we all should always follow it.
Right.
What does this rule tell us to do?
Well I suppose in a word you might say, it tells us to live and to act in accordance with reason. Uh it is a rational requirement as Kant understands it, and so it's um a prescription that directs us to order our lives in accordance with certain conditions that we at least implicitly recognize are conditions of being a rational person or a reasonable person.
So it's not immediately intuitive how reason could either be a source of a command or tell us about anything we should do in the world. And then how could it tell us something about ethics? So can you tell us a bit more about what Kant thought reason was?
Very good question. Um one of the distinctive features of Kant's understanding of morality lies in his I think the way in which he sees reason as underlying this moral principle or as being the source of it. We tend today to think of morality as concerned with action, what we ought to do, instead of requirements. But Kant is thinking of morality as consisting in certain well, requirements, but which emanate ultimately from a capacity we have, which he calls reason, which has a kind of application in contexts uh which are quite distinct from what we think of as moral contexts in the first instance. So for instance, reason plays a role in our investigation of nature. We use reason to form hypotheses about how the world works, to discover laws that govern the phenomena that we're investigating in the natural world.
And Kant thinks of this same capacity that we're using to understand the world we live in as playing a role in directing how we ourselves should live. And it's in in the form of these imperatives or commands that um he spells out what that requirement is. So to give you just a quick d description of what I take to be two principal factors in the um the requirements of reason that apply both in our investigation use of reason to investigate nature and also in practical matters.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the categorical imperative and why is it central to Kant’s ethics?
0:00–0:50
2
How does Kant define the categorical imperative as a non‑conditional moral command?
0:50–2:50
3
What role does reason play in Kant’s moral theory and how does it generate universal requirements?
2:50–6:16
4
What are Kant’s two kinds of universality (objective and subjective) and how do they differ?
6:16–10:49
5
How does the formula of universal law help us test whether a maxim can be willed by everyone?
10:49–16:42
6
Why does Kant say a libertarian‑style ‘look out for yourself’ maxim is self‑contradictory?
16:42–22:21
7
How does Kant connect universal agreement with practical deliberation in a community?
22:21–27:55
8
What is the contemporary relevance of Kant’s categorical imperative for moral philosophy?
27:55–31:54
Speakers
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