For Kant, there is a close connection between the nature of moral truths—in particular, their prescriptive content (i.e., what they direct one to do), as well as their necessity and universality—and the way in which we discover those truths, namely, a priori. In his view, one can discover a maximally general, fundamental moral principle. This is a principle that he calls “the categorical imperative”. Kant holds it can be known through reason alone, specifically, via a transcendental argument (se