Kant's Categorical Imperative?

According to Immanuel Kant, there are two faculties of the mind: theoretical reason and practical reason. Theoretical reason allows us to answer the question, "What can I know?", while practical reason allows us to answer the question, "What ought I to do?".

For Kant, practical reason issues a duty to respect its law. That is, morality is not rooted in consequences (consequentialism), but rather in sheer duty (deontological ethics).

For Kant, practical reason issues a "categorical imperative" that commands us to act in a accordance with the dictates of reason. There is only one categorical imperative, but Kant offers three formulations of it:
1) Act as if your maxim were a universal law of nature. What if everybody did this action? A "maxim" is a personal principle of action, such as "I will never lie," "stealing is wrong." If your maxim is not one that can be universalized, then it does not issue from the categorical imperative. For example, if your maxim was "lying is permissible", then human relationships would not be possible because we would not know who to trust. This formulation, then, can be summed up with the question, "What if everyone did this"?
2) The second formulation goes as follows: Treat another rational being as an end in himself, not as a mere means. This means that we should value the other person solely for who they are and not merely use them to serve our needs. Of course, in daily life we cannot avoid this (you use the shop clerk in order to get your can of cola). Kant's point is that a person should not be a "mere" means. Treat that person as a rational being, much in the same way you would want to be treated.
3) The third formulation is as follows: Act as if your maxim would harmonize with a kingdom of ends. This means that the action should be consistent with a world in which people are treated as ends in themselves.

Here's a couple of additional points you should keep in mind:
1) An action is right in and of itself without appeal to consequences. In this sense, Kant is a "deontological" thinker, not a consquentialist.
2) Only rational beings are worthy of moral consideration. If you are a dog or a tree, you do not fit into Kant's moral ontology.

To find examples, think of an action and then put it through the testing procedure of the categorical imperative. Kant's favorite example is that of lying. Stealing and murder also fit into Kant's categorical imperative. These actions are wrong in and of themselves, without any reference to consequences (notwithstanding any negative consequences there might be).

Kant's synthetic and analytic crap gets complicated really fast, but I find the categorical imperative simple.

There is only one imperative, so choose the formulation that is clearest and simplest to you and don't worry about the rest.

The Imperative is a way to choose how you will act. My own formulation which is very close to Kant's first, is "I know how I want to be treated, therefore I know how to act". I know that I like being greeted warmly, so I greet people warmly. I know I don't like cars driving the wrong way on my side of the street, so I don't drive on the wrong side of the street. I'm annoyed by people showing up late, so I try to be on time. Etc.
To use Kant's words ,I am acting that way because I wish that is the way everyone acted. Remember, This is how I want to act, I'm not trying to get everyone to act this way. It's my ethics!

Simple

Wow, I read all of that and I STILL have no idea what it means. I have been unable to fathom Kant for 35 years. All I get is he says "This and this you have to do, because asdfi[0f,l;aserntjkl r"

At least it seems to me that he could express himself in simple German and not mince around in more and more complicated "qualifiers."

When I speak obscurely, it is probably because I am trying to obscure something.

Kant's Categorical Imperative

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A categorical imperative is an absolute and universal moral obligation. One of the most famous is Kant's categorical imperative, especially because it is through him that the phrase is widely known. According to Kant, "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it become a universal law." Another variation which he used was "Act only on a principle all rational agents could act on. Most religious moral systems comprise categorical imperatives. Kant contrasted a categorical imperative with hypothetical imperatives, which take the conditional form of "If you want to achieve goal X, you must perform act A." Hypothetical imperatives are not universal or absolute, because they are necessarily conditioned on some goal or desire.

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RE:
Kant's Categorical Imperative?
Can someone please give me some examples of a categorical imperative, and explain in simple terms what it is? I've done endless reading on it, but can't seem to wrap my mind around it....

Kant's view of categorical imperative is erroneous. If Kant would disregard the nature of the consequence of an action, then it would be difficult to "classify an action" whether it is moral or not. No person on the face of the earth capable of devising a "universal standard of what is moral or not" only God himself - The creator of The Laws.

It is a fact.