ABSTRACT

Good intentions count. The morality of an action is not determined by its consequences, only by the intentions behind it. Morality is objective: it’s not a matter of taste or culture, but applies equally to all rational beings. The point of Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals is to make these claims plausible by establishing what he calls ‘the supreme principle of morality’, namely the categorical imperative. The book was written as a short prelude to his more complex and detailed work on moral philosophy. It has stood the test of time as a succinct statement of a duty-based or deontological moral theory.