Moral Logic

Is the Categorical Imperative Convincing?

The following essay answers the question:

Are you convinced by Kant’s argument that there are categorical as well as hypothetical imperatives?

This question is not asking us to evaluate whether the consequences of a system of bifurcated imperatives is preferable or not, or to judge whether such a system could “work”. Rather, it is asking whether Kant, in his Groundwork on the Metaphysics of Morals, supplied a convincing argument that two sorts of imperatives exist. In other words, this is a logical and an ontological question, not a normative one.