A hypothetical imperative, originally introduced in the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant, is a commandment of reason that applies only conditionally:
Kant divides hypothetical imperatives into two subcategories: the rules of skill and the counsels of prudence. The rules of skill are conditional and are specific to each and every person to which the skill is mandated by. The counsels of prudence (or rules of prudence) are attained a priori (unlike the rules of skill which are attained via experience, or a posteriori) and have universal goals such as happiness. Thus, almost any moral "rule" about how to act is hypothetical, because it assumes that your goal is to be moral, or to be happy, or to please God, etc. The only non-hypothetical imperatives are ones which tell you to do something no matter who you are or what you want, because the thing is good in itself.
A hypothetical imperative is a rule of the form If you want x, then do y. Moral theories may generally have this structure. This means that only those who want x, must do y. Another view is that moral values are not relative to some objective, but are the same for all, that is they are unconditional, or categorical.
The term was coined by Immanuel Kant. Kant said that moral values had to be unconditional, categorical; he wrote a categorical imperative.
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