Categorical imperatives

This norm, together with (he categorical imperative and other social norms, is further discussed in chapters XII and XIII. 

Utilitarianism is a doctrine, enunciated by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806— 1873) it is the search for the greatest happiness for the greatest number 7 or, more eloquently, the quantitative maximization of some good for society or humanity. .. a form of consequentialism . Con-sequentialism is the belief that what ultimately matters in evaluating actions or policies of action are the consequences that result from choosing one action or policy rather than the alternative.8 Thus, utilitarianism is a direct counter to the motivation-based categorical imperatives (essentially a deductive approach) of Kant. 

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) proposed that God, freedom, and thoughts of immortality are the basis of morality. The categorical imperative of Kant is fliat morality and consciousness of one s duties and obligations should determine one s actions. It is the imperative of universal morality, which is based on freedom and reason. An individual should act the way all moral human beings should act. It is reflected in the Christian ideal that What you should not want done to yourself, do not do unto others or the Hindu belief that No man do to another that which would be repugnant to himself or the Jewish belief that Thou shalt love thy neighbor as myself or the Zoroastrian belief that What I hold good for myself, I should for all. The foundation of society on morality is universal. 

Immanuel Kant gives a number of different formulations of what he takes to be the basic principle of morality in his two major works on ethics, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and the Critique of Practical Reason (1788). The first formulation of the categorical imperative in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals reads Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law (GroundworkySearon i). 

Yet, as described in the preceding chapters, the inherent categorical imperative of the method demanding completion and control of all chemical transformations on cross-linked polymer supports did not allow a direct breakthrough to automatic synthesis of real proteins. Though from the point of view of chemical problems there are still shortcomings in this respect, today several mechanical instruments are available on the market to perform manually or program-controlled gel-phase syntheses. 

Immanuel Kant was a profoundly influential German philosopher of the Enlightenment. Kant said that we must treat people as ends in themselves, and never as a means to an end, by which he intended that we should always treat people with humanity and dignity, and never use individuals as mere instruments as a means to our own happiness (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). Another way of expressing Kant s Categorical Imperative is Always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be willed as a universal law. In other words, one should act only in such a way that one would want all men to act, and not treat individuals as mere means to an end. Kantian ethics are an example of a deontological approach to ethics (vide infra). 

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