Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy represents one of the most influential and rigorous attempts to ground ethics in reason alone. At the heart of his deontological ethics lies the concept of the categorical imperative, which serves as the supreme principle of morality. Kant was dissatisfied with moral theories that based right and wrong on consequences, emotions, or contingent human desires. Instead, he sought an objective, universal, and rational foundation for moral obligation, one that would apply to all rational beings irrespective of their personal goals or social circumstances. The categorical imperative is Kant’s answer to the question of what makes an action morally right. The categorical imperative is a command of reason that is unconditional and universally binding. Kant contrasts it with hypothetical imperatives, which prescribe actions as means to achieve particular ends, such as “if you want to be healthy, you ought to exercise.” Hypothetical imperatives depend on individual desires and are therefore contingent. In contrast, the categorical imperative commands an action not because of any desired outcome, but because the action is intrinsically required by reason. It applies to all rational agents simply by virtue of their rationality and moral capacity. Kant presents several formulations of the categorical imperative, which he insists are different expressions of the same underlying moral law. The most famous formulation is the Formula of Universal Law, which states that one should act only according to that maxim which one can will to become a universal law. A maxim is the subjective principle or rule that an individual follows when acting. To test whether an action is morally permissible, one must ask whether the maxim guiding the action could be