Kant's Doctrine Of The Categorical Imperative

This thesis is intended to briefly expound Kant's doctrine of the categorical imperative.His doctrine of it is constituted of several parts,that is,the concept of the categorical imperative,the formulation of the categorical imperative and the deduction of the categorical imperative,the structure of my thesis goes with this kind of logical construction.This thesis is made up of four chapters.The purpose of the first chapter is to clarify the concept of the categorical imperative.This chapter is divided into three sections.The first section is to expound the objective principles of practical reason,the second section is to explain the concept of imperative and the third section is to clarify the concept of the categorical imperative on the foundation of the objective principles of practical reason and the concept of imperative.It comes to the conclusion that the moral law is,as an objective law,efficient to all the rational beings(including the infinite beings,such as the God),but the categorical imperative,since it has the necessitation of the will,can only be efficient to the finitely rational beings as the practical law.The second chapter has two tasks,one is to illuminate Kant's five kinds of formulation of the categorical imperative,and the other one is to illuminate the relations of the five formulas.This chapter is divided into two sections.The first section is to illuminate the five formulas of the categorical imperative,namely the formula of universal law,the formula of natural law,the formula of humanity,the formula of autonomy and the formula of the kingdom of ends.And it also illuminates that the principle of autonomy of the will,as the categorical imperative,is the sole moral principle and the supreme principle of morality.The second section is to make a response to the debate,which is raised by the Kantian scholars,on the unity proposition about the relations of the formulas by introducing a new translation.The task of the third chapter is to discuss about Kant's deduction on the categorical imperative.This chapter is divided into three sections.The first section is to illuminate the concept of deduction.The second section is to expound Kant's preparatory argument before he makes the deduction of the categorical imperative.The third section is to illuminate Kant's deductive process of the categorical imperative on the basis of the second section.Finally,at the last chapter,I make some comments on Kant's doctrine of the categorical imperative,and expound its theoretical significance and practical value as an epilogue.