1-2: 24-47.

So the way Kant uses "universal law" actually has a lot in common with the former than with the latter, as it's used hypothetically. He is equally well known for his metaphysics–the subject of his "Critique of Pure Reason"—and for the moral philosophy set out in his "Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals" and "Critique of Practical Reason" (although "Groundwork" is the far easier of the two to understand). Ethics - Ethics - Kant: Interestingly, Kant acknowledged that he had despised the ignorant masses until he read Rousseau and came to appreciate the worth that exists in every human being. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66, no.

This conclusion, of course, -- and the very laws we were hypothesising -- are all moral. But it's important to understand how the terms are being used. Kant's formula of universal law. Korsgaard, Christine M. 1985. Contradiction and Kant’s Formula of Universal Law ... the action specified in the maxim would be impossible if the maxim were a universal law, and Kant assumes that this is true of the maxim to borrow money and promise falsely to repay it, when one believes oneself to be in need of money (GMS, AA 04: 422). Kant: the Universal Law Formation of the Categorical Imperative Kantian philosophy outlines the Universal Law Formation of the Categorical Imperative as a method for determining morality of actions. Only then can it be capable of “giving universal law.” Although Kant sometimes writes as if it were difficult to see what practical reason requires (for instance, in his comments about practical wisdom: §3.2 below), he usually assumes that everyone readily grasps the fundamental principles which all can follow. This formula is a two part test.

Now people have no choice but to follow the laws of nature, but they have a choice as to whether they follow moral laws. Like his predecessors, Kant insisted that actions resulting from desires cannot be free. Categorical imperative, in the ethics of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, founder of critical philosophy, a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any ulterior motive or end. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is generally considered to be one of the most profound and original philosophers who ever lived.

For other reasons too, Kant is part of the tradition deriving from both Spinoza and Rousseau.