what is the deontologist’s claim that the categorical imperative (law of reciprocity) is a universal and fundamental principle of ethics?

Question

Have been searching the internet for an hour now and cant find anything that really describes it

Answer 1

Kant thought that ethical duties were constant - they never change regardless of circumstances. The categorical imperative is a universal command - it is something that we must follow all the time, with no exceptions. This means that there are no exceptions for individual people or special circumstances. To tie this into reciprocity and universality: Kant says that we should only do those things that everyone can and should do "as a universal law," meaning everyone follows the same rule at the same time, all the time. If we are making a special exception for ourselves or for a specific situation, we are breaking the rule of universality. So ethics is universal (applies to everyone equally all the time) and reciprocal (we must only do what we would allow all others to also do).