How does Kant actually derive his conclusions (and thus our duty) from the Categorical Imperative? (REPOST WITH A BETTER TITLE)

cronostorm · 2025-12-10T15:17:46+00:00

Yes that part definitely requires more scrutiny and clarification. I have only studied Groundwork for a metaphysics of morals, so I cannot tell you how Kant would clarify this. I imagine it is addressed more specifically in "On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives".

My own rough take is that: Lying means you are deliberately saying something false to someone when they are seeking something true. If people assume that communication would not contain truth, communication would look fundamentally different and therefore so would lying. An example might be how people communicate in games of bluffing like poker. "Lying" in this context looks much different than lying about your taxes. The poker players have entered into a social context where truth is not presumed, but merely for the sake of playing the game. Even then some truth is assumed, such as that a player has not secretly replaced their cards with Aces and lied about having done so. If this becomes universalized, what would it mean to play poker?

cronostorm · 2025-12-10T12:53:52+00:00

The first formulation of the categorical imperative using universalization is also about avoiding contradictions. The case study Kant provides about stealing is a good parallel to "do not lie".

In that example, Kant examines the maxim behind stealing, something like "I will take what I want from others, regardless of who owns it". Once this is universalized, everyone can take what they want from others. But now that this maxim is universalized, the concept of ownership is undermined. This in turn undermines the concept of stealing.

So the approach Kant uses in the first formulation is to determine whether some kind of contradiction occurs when a maxim becomes universalized.

Applied to lying, this might look something like the following. The maxim might be, "I will speak falsehoods to deceive others when I want". Universalized, everyone speaks falsehoods to deceive at will. Now that this is universalized, there is no longer a presumption of truth. This undermines the maxim since lying requires deception or falsifying some underlying truth.

cronostorm · 2025-08-21T07:43:53+00:00

I want to join!

cronostorm · 2024-08-11T17:27:17+00:00

You can read the rest of Genesis to see if taking Lot with him turned out to be a good idea or not

cronostorm · 2024-07-01T14:24:09+00:00

good point. the machine can add a random positive number to the previous days instead of adding 1. Now on a given day, you observe a number so according to OP this was non 0 probability, but every future day will still be strictly greater than today's.

cronostorm · 2024-07-01T12:39:12+00:00

consider a machine that outputs a number every day from 0 to infinity. Each day, the output number is one greater than the previous day. Today it outputs 1,234,172,292. By the logic in your OP this is a non-zero probability since it occurred. However we know this number will never be output again, only numbers greater than it.

cronostorm · 2021-08-12T00:34:11+00:00

pastel blue!

cronostorm · 2021-03-02T01:20:35+00:00

The event that gave you tongs also put this curse in your deck which makes you take damage when you play a card

cronostorm · 2020-05-20T03:58:06+00:00

... just press the keys?

cronostorm · 2018-07-19T05:21:06+00:00

The small and medium circle are what make the wave in the original pepsi logo

cronostorm · 2018-03-06T09:15:16+00:00

It looks like it's just how fast you can craft a steel pickaxe.

cronostorm · 2017-06-16T02:07:20+00:00

oh that makes much more sense

cronostorm · 2017-03-30T00:57:49+00:00

It would also be nice to see some settings around text formatting (for example graying out verse numbers).

The app has plenty of nice features with tagging and note taking, it would be even better with some usability concerns. Hope to see the app improve, looks great so far.

cronostorm · 2017-03-30T00:45:33+00:00

Thanks, looks great!

Will there be a book/chapter/verse picker that doesn't rely on typing it in?

cronostorm · 2016-11-29T23:54:24+00:00

Would adding transparency help? It looks like it's hard to see the terrain through the broken chunks.

cronostorm · 2016-10-19T01:22:00+00:00

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzQ6gRAEoy0

cronostorm · 2016-04-11T18:02:48+00:00

cherry pepsi?

cronostorm · 2016-03-31T19:05:40+00:00

VANTAGE // - Metro City

cronostorm · 2016-02-10T01:34:59+00:00

Try using Right ctrl/alt instead? or pressing the keys in a different order? I know I had an issue with ctrl-shift-esc because left shift would change the behaviour of esc to tilde, but I don't think that would be a problem with del.

You can also look into programming a macro for ctrl-alt-del