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Kant's first formulation of the categorical imperative is that we should act only on principles that we would want as universal laws. He writes that this formula could also be stated as a requirement that we act as though our action would make the principle of our action into a universal law of nature. Kant arrives at these formulations in seeking for some moral formula that could apply in all situations and circumstances. Only reason, he argues, can supply principles that are universally valid. When people act according to a principle that they would not want as a universal law, they contradict themselves, for they behave in a way that they would not want others to emulate. Self- contradiction is illogical, and so violates principles of reason. Kant's initial formulation of the categorical imperative provides a moral law based on this principle.
From this initial formulation Kant derives his next formulation of the categorical imperative as a requirement that we never treat other people as mere means to our own ends. Kant argues that rational beings are "ends in themselves": they cannot view themselves as mere means to other purposes; rather, they always view themselves as the purpose of their actions. When we fail to respect the fact that other rational beings are ends in themselves just as we are, we advance principles that we would not want as universal laws, and we therefore contradict ourselves.
Kant's final formulation of the categorical imperative follows easily from the earlier formulations. Kant's "kingdom of ends" is an ideal community in which all citizens are at once the authors and subjects of all laws. In this community, the only possible laws are laws that could apply to all rational beings. Thus the categorical imperative may be formulated as a requirement that we follow only those principles that could be laws in the kingdom of ends.
