A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.
Immanuel KantWe assume a common sense as the necessary condition of the universal communicability of our knowledge, which is presupposed in every logic and every principle of knowledge that is not one of skepticism.
Immanuel KantThe schematicism by which our understanding deals with the phenomenal world ... is a skill so deeply hidden in the human soul that we shall hardly guess the secret trick that Nature here employs.
Immanuel Kant