Formula of Universal Law
E84437
The Formula of Universal Law is Kant’s central moral principle that requires one to act only on maxims that can be consistently willed as universal laws for everyone.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Formula of Universal Law canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T693648 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Formula of Universal Law Context triple: [categorical imperative, hasFormulation, Formula of Universal Law]
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A.
law of universal gravitation
The law of universal gravitation is Newton’s fundamental physical law stating that every pair of masses in the universe attracts each other with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
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B.
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are three fundamental principles that mathematically describe how planets orbit the Sun in ellipses, sweep out equal areas in equal times, and relate their orbital periods to their distances from the Sun.
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C.
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is Isaac Newton’s foundational work that formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, becoming a cornerstone of classical physics and the Scientific Revolution.
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D.
Newtonian gravitational constant G
The Newtonian gravitational constant G is the fundamental physical constant that quantifies the strength of gravitational attraction between masses in classical and relativistic theories of gravity.
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E.
Newton's second law of motion
Newton's second law of motion is a fundamental principle stating that the net force acting on an object equals the rate of change of its momentum, commonly expressed as F = ma for constant mass.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Formula of Universal Law Target entity description: The Formula of Universal Law is Kant’s central moral principle that requires one to act only on maxims that can be consistently willed as universal laws for everyone.
-
A.
law of universal gravitation
The law of universal gravitation is Newton’s fundamental physical law stating that every pair of masses in the universe attracts each other with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
-
B.
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are three fundamental principles that mathematically describe how planets orbit the Sun in ellipses, sweep out equal areas in equal times, and relate their orbital periods to their distances from the Sun.
-
C.
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is Isaac Newton’s foundational work that formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, becoming a cornerstone of classical physics and the Scientific Revolution.
-
D.
Newtonian gravitational constant G
The Newtonian gravitational constant G is the fundamental physical constant that quantifies the strength of gravitational attraction between masses in classical and relativistic theories of gravity.
-
E.
Newton's second law of motion
Newton's second law of motion is a fundamental principle stating that the net force acting on an object equals the rate of change of its momentum, commonly expressed as F = ma for constant mass.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Kantian principle
ⓘ
formulation of the categorical imperative ⓘ moral principle ⓘ |
| aimsAt |
eliminating self-exception in moral reasoning
ⓘ
establishing objective moral law ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
all possible moral actions
ⓘ
all rational agents ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Kingdom of Prussia
ⓘ
linked to:
Prussia
|
| author | Immanuel Kant ⓘ |
| basedOn |
autonomy of the will
ⓘ
practical reason ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
consequentialist ethics
ⓘ
moral relativism ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will to be a universal law
ⓘ
moral permissibility depends on universalizability of maxims ⓘ |
| critiquedBy |
Hegel
ⓘ
linked to:
Immanuel Kant
John Stuart Mill ⓘ |
| critiquedFor |
alleged emptiness or formalism
ⓘ
dependence on description of maxims ⓘ |
| exampleApplication |
duty not to commit suicide from self-love
ⓘ
duty not to make false promises ⓘ duty to develop one’s talents ⓘ duty to help others in need ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
contradiction in conception test
ⓘ
contradiction in will test ⓘ |
| hasFormulation | act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary discussions of universalizability
ⓘ
modern deontological theories ⓘ |
| languageOfOriginalStatement | German ⓘ |
| partOf | categorical imperative ⓘ |
| philosophicalDiscipline |
ethics
ⓘ
moral philosophy ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
German idealism
ⓘ
deontological ethics ⓘ |
| region | Prussia ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
autonomy
ⓘ
duty ⓘ good will ⓘ maxim ⓘ moral law ⓘ universal law ⓘ |
| requires |
consistency of willing a maxim as universal law
ⓘ
testing maxims for universalizability ⓘ |
| statedIn |
Critique of Practical Reason
ⓘ
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 18th century ⓘ |
| usedFor |
deriving imperfect duties
ⓘ
deriving perfect duties ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Formula of Universal Law Description of subject: The Formula of Universal Law is Kant’s central moral principle that requires one to act only on maxims that can be consistently willed as universal laws for everyone.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
→
keyFormulaOfCategoricalImperative
→
Formula of Universal Law
ⓘ