metonymy4u

When Kant described his idea of the categorical imperative, I believe he was trying to make the world safer for both prudence and duty. The idea here is to understand that sometimes when we talk about morality we mean prudence and sometimes we mean something else more akin to “ought.” The goal is not to separate these two domains as part of essentially distinct spheres of reality, but to enrich human vocabulary by exploring a dialectic of speech. I believe Kant wanted to make us more pragmatic, and more compassionate. I cannot justify that perspective on his writings any more than I can justify my belief in cause and effect or stimulus and response. It’s just where I start from when I read his work. If you happen to start somewhere else and reach other conclusions, then that’s all that can be said about that, as well.