Encyclopedia > Hypothetical imperative

  Article Content

Hypothetical imperative

A hypothetical imperative, in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, is a command that applies only conditionally: if A, then B, where A is a condition or goal, and B is an action. For example, if you wish to remain healthy, then you should not eat spoiled food. Thus, a hypothetical imperative is not justified in itself, but as a means to an end; whether it is in force as a command depends on whether the end it helps attain is desired (or required). The opposite of a hypothetical imperative is a categorical imperative, which is unconditional and an end in itself.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Sakhalin

... by fishing and hunting. The Ainus inhabit the south part of the island. From the 32,000 Russians (of whom over 22,150 were convicts) at the beginning of 20th century, ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24.9 ms