Good will--is a will that wills without respect to the outcomes of its action but simply to be good in itself. The goodness of such a will is not dependent in any manner upon the actual success or failure of its actions.

Duty--is the obligation to act from reverence for law. Duty occurs when one acts in relation to a moral law or maxim, a moral principle, by which the will is determined to act "independent of every object of sensuous desire." Only those actions that set aside all notions of "natural inclination" or any objects that might be desired by the agent are actions in which the will acts for the law itself. Thus, when the will acts for the good in spite of this good causing its unhappiness, such a will acts because of duty and not simply in accordance with duty.

Moral maxim--gives the will a principle whereby it can will for the sake of a good will and not for any external good. Such a maxim must be given a priori and in abstracto, i.e. before the will encounters any concrete possibility for any action whatsoever in the world. "Conscious of its own dignity, the moral law treats all sensuous desires with contempt, and it is able to master them one by one."

Moral imperative--is the formulaic statement of a command of reason that gives an objective principle binding upon the will. The binding nature of this statement is expressed by the word ought. There may also be subjective inclinations and antipathies influencing the will, but these are extraneous to the moral imperative. Indeed, the moral imperative commands that we ignore such subjective considerations.

Respect--is the subjective feeling one has for the moral law when one is objectively commanded by the law's ought. Here the subjective embraces the good in itself rather than one's happiness or pleasure or benefit.

Hypothetical imperatives--are imperative commands that state something must be done, if something else is to be obtained.

Examples: If you want to play the piano well, you ought to practice your scales. If you want to live a happy life, you should act to form good friendships.

Categorical imperatives--are imperative commands that directly command an action, without presupposing as its condition that some other end is to be obtained by means of that action.

The Categorical Imperative: Act in conformity with that maxim, and that maxim only, which you can at the same time will to be a universal law.

Three forms of the categorical imperative:

1) Act as if the maxim from which you act were to become through your will a universal law of nature.

2) Act so as to use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always as an end, never merely as a means.

3) Act so that the will may regard itself as in its maxims laying down universal laws (i.e. laws that are obligatory for any rational creature).

Kingdom of Ends--Here laws will serve to bring all rational creatures into a universal system of moral relationships that encompass all possible maxims and ends.

Autonomy--occurs when the will acts according to its own ability to give a law to itself that emerges from out of itself without reference to any natural impulse or any interest..

Heteronomy--when the will acts according to oughts that are external to the will. For example, pleasures, happiness, personal advantage, increased wealth, etc.