hypothetical imperative

hypothetical imperative, in the ethics of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, a rule of conduct that is understood to apply to an individual only if he or she desires a certain end and has chosen (willed) to act on that desire. Although hypothetical imperatives may be expressed in various ways, their basic logical form is: “If you desire X (or not X), you should (or should not) do Y.” The conduct urged in a hypothetical imperative may be the same as or different from that commanded by a conventional moral law. For example: “If you want to be trusted, you should always tell the truth”; “If you want to become rich, you should steal whenever you can get away with it”; and “If you want to avoid heartburn, you should not eat capsaicin.” Hypothetical imperatives are contrasted with “categorical” imperatives, which are rules of conduct that, by their form— “Do (or do not do) Y”—are understood to apply to all individuals, no matter what their desires. Examples corresponding to those above are: “Always tell the truth”; “Steal whenever you can get away with it”; and “Do not eat capsaicin.” For Kant there is only one categorical imperative in the moral realm. Nevertheless, he formulated it in two ways: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” and “So act as to treat humanity…always as an end, and never as only a means.” See also categorical imperative; Immanuel Kant: The Critique of Practical Reason; and Ethics: The Continental tradition from Spinoza to Nietzsche: Kant.

(Read Peter Singer’s Britannica entry on ethics.)