Meta-Ethics: Grounding Morality

Agency is rational autonomy, which is the control of the self by the intellect. Without agency, one is not responsible for ones actions, which means that one is not an ethical being. The fundamental duty of all ethical beings is to respect agency, not merely ones own agency (as that is merely respecting oneself), but the agency of all agents. This is what Kant called the categorical imperative, which means that unlike so-called hypothetical imperatives, it is not done for the sake of something else. That is, one ought to respect agency not because of any positive consequences it could have for oneself, but simply because it is the right thing to do. To respect somebody means to not use them as merely means to your own ends, but to treat them as ends-in-themselves; this is the ground of morality.