In his book On the Basis of Morality (1840), Arthur Schopenhauer presents a careful analysis of the Groundwork. His criticism is an attempt to prove, among other things, that actions are not moral when they are performed solely from duty. Schopenhauer called Kant's ethical philosophy the weakest point in Kant's philosophical system and specifically targeted the Categorical Imperative, labeling it cold and egoistic. While he publicly called himself a Kantian, and made clear and bold criticisms of Hegelian philosophy, he was quick and unrelenting in his analysis of the inconsistencies throughout Kant's long body of work. Schopenhauer's early admirer, Friedrich Nietzsche, also criticized the Categorical Imperative as "dangerous to life", in that, among other things:
A nation goes to pieces when it confounds its duty with the general concept of duty. Nothing works a more complete and penetrating disaster than every "impersonal" duty, every sacrifice before the Moloch of abstraction.[1]
He takes it to be a peculiar expression of "slavish" egalitarianism, de facto always already prioritizing the sick, the weakly over the healthy and strong – those capable of valid self-legislation to begin with –, thereby undermining the very possibility of human greatness at its root. But others have stressed many deeper similarities that adherents to a framework of unqualified liberalism, prone to condemning Nietzsche from the canon, have overlooked.[2]
