The Categorical Imperative Process and Moral Duties

European Enlightenment philosophy (seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy) led to democratic revolutions and ultimately commercial and economic reforms. At the apex of this era, Immanuel Kant offered his categorical imperative as a process that reflects common thinking about methods for deriving practical moral maxims and duties. This process is shown here as relevant for managerial leadership and business efficiency. The role of reflective thought in establishing and maintaining these maxims is emphasized. The categorization of these maxims into their associated perfect and imperfect duties is reviewed so that absolute prohibitions (perfect duties) can be understood as distinctly different from those volitional duties (imperfect duties) that pursue wide objectives but with practical limitations. This latter category is shown to be particularly germane to effective modern management.