"categorical imperative" meaning in English

See categorical imperative in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: categorical imperatives [plural]
Etymology: From German kategorischer Imperativ. Etymology templates: {{der|en|de|kategorischer Imperativ}} German kategorischer Imperativ Head templates: {{en-noun}} categorical imperative (plural categorical imperatives)
  1. (ethics) A fundamental ethical principle intended as a guide for determining whether any contemplated action is morally right, based on the concept that an action is good or bad in and of itself regardless of what the actor's aims or preferences are. Wikipedia link: categorical imperative Categories (topical): Ethics Related terms: deontology, golden rule, hypothetical imperative, moral imperative, Ten Commandments Translations (fundamental ethical principle): kategorický imperativ [masculine] (Czech), impératif catégorique [masculine] (French), kategorischer Imperativ [masculine] (German), categorischer Imperativ [masculine] (German), imperativo categórico [masculine] (Portuguese), imperativ categoric [neuter] (Romanian)

Inflected forms

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (32c88e6 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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