The 18
th-Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804) presents a criterion of moral obligation,
which he calls the
categorical imperative.
Kant's account of morality fits squarely into the
deontological
tradition and is found in three principal books:
The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785),
The Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and
The Metaphysics of Morals (1798).
Kant's writings indicate that he was aware of the moral traditions
that went before him, such as virtue theory which bases morality
on good character traits, and consequentialist accounts which base
morality solely on the consequences of actions.
In all of his ethical writings, Kant rejects these traditional
theories of morality and argues instead that moral actions are based
on a
"
supreme principle of morality"
which is objective, rational, and freely chosen:
the categorical imperative.
Kant's clearest account of the categorical imperative
is in the
Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.
Considérant, Victor Prosper (1808-1893). Victor Considérant, founder
of La Réunion, a colony near Dallas, was born in Salins, France, on
October 12, 1808. After a short service in the French army he resigned
to devote his energies to popularizing and applying the utopian ideas
of Charles Fourier. Considérant was one of the leading democratic
socialist figures in France during the volatile revolutionary period
of 1830 to 1850 and functioned as the international leader of the
Fourierist movement.
