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categorical imperative

NOUN
moral law
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Another cited German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative” to treat humans not as a means to an end, but as an end in themselves.

From Los Angeles Times

If you pass through Rome, a visit to the poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, buried in the city’s Non-Catholic Cemetery, is a categorical imperative.

From New York Times

Having made his name promoting transparency in state accounts and other old-style mainstream Republican priorities, he now torques ordinary conservative dispositions into categorical imperatives.

From New York Times

This led him to a thought exercise known as the categorical imperative An action is right only if it is right for all people in all situations.

From Washington Post

In terms of German political thought, her lodestar has been Max Weber’s damage-limiting “ethic of responsibility,” not Immanuel Kant’s moralistic “categorical imperative.”

From Washington Post