Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel Kant · 1785 CE
Excerpt
“Act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
Why the atlas keeps it
Written in under five months in 1785 and deliberately unreadable, on Kant's own account, because he wanted it to be hard. One maxim is tested three ways — as a universal law, humanity as an end in itself, and the kingdom of ends — and the ground of obligation is the form of the act, never its consequence.
Terms this text reaches for
Ranked by the codex search index against the summary above, not hand-picked.
Categorical imperative
philosophyKant's test of an act's maxim by asking whether it could be a universal law.
EU AI Act
governanceThe European Union's risk-based regulation of AI, phasing in from 2024.
Scaling law
technicalPredictable power-law relationships between model size, compute and loss.
Goodhart's law
alignmentWhen a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure.
International law
governanceRules binding on states rather than on systems, with no forum above them.
Hypothetical imperative
philosophyA command that binds only if you happen to want the end it presupposes.