ABSTRACT
The first formula “expresses the idea that the moral law is not only universal, but that its essence lies in the form of universality”; the second tells “that the consciousness of that law is one with that consciousness of himself as an end which belongs to the rational being as such.” In his ethical work, “The Metaphysic of Ethics”, Immanuel Kant takes his stand on the ordinary moral consciousness, and by making a thorough analysis of it and excluding particularly all that it does not imply, endeavours to reach the quintessence of all morals. Moral action is reason acting on a motive derived entirely from itself, in opposition to the motives of passion relating to external objects. After every such motive of passion has been set aside, nothing remains but the pure form of universality with which reason invests every matter that is brought to it.
