Joseph Pallattil

“May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law”, said by the famous philosopher Immanuel Kant. The formula of Universal Law, Immanuel Kant’s most famous version of the Categorical Imperative, is commonly understood to demand that one act exclusively on the basis of maxims that one can will as universal laws. One of Kant’s categorical imperatives is the universalizability principle, in which one should “act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” This simply means that if you do an action, then everyone else should also be able to do it. Your maxim is your reason for acting. The formula of universal law therefore says that you should only act for those reasons which have the following characteristic. That is, you can act for that reason while at the same time willing that it be a universal law that everyone adopt that reason for acting. The formula of universal Law signifies the concern which one have towards the other. When one thinks of the consequences of his action he is really concerning the other.
This can be read with the golden rule which Jesus provides “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). This rule of conduct is a summary of the Christian’s duty to his neighbour and states a fundamental ethical principle. A general rule for how to behave that says that you should treat people the way you would like other people to treat you. The dictum to “do to others as you want others to do to you” is easily grasped and has a universal application. This is consistent with Kant’s idea that “moral principles must hold universally, for all rational beings.”
The Golden Rule presupposes that each person knows what kind of behaviour is acceptable based on his or her own experiences. Otherwise, social order will be disrupted, leading to a lack of collaboration among society’s members. As a result, despite its ambiguity and impartiality, the rule has an intuitive quality that ensures its widespread implementation. As a result, the Categorical Imperative is frequently considered as a more rigorous version of the Golden Rule, sometimes to the point where it appears to be a universal principle. The first formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative says that your actions should be universal and be willed to be universalized. This is similar to the Golden Rule presented by Jesus that you should, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31) and that you should, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”. If you can will your action to be universalized, then it would be an action you would wish consider moral in all situations including your own, thus it could be argued that the Golden Rule is identical to Kant’s Categorical Imperative.