康德的義務倫理學的一個重要強調，就是他對無上命令普遍有效性的堅持。本文試圖從康德倫理學發展的角度，揭示他的這一個命題的真實意義。其中涉及1762年《獎作》中康德對約束性概念的澄清；1764年《美感與崇高感的觀察》中以「人性的美感與崇高感」做為道德感的唯一對象；〈1765/1766年冬季學期課程預告〉中將「人之應當」建立於「人是什麼」；1764年至1766年間對個人意志與公意一致之必要性感的強調；1770年《正教授論文》中純道德概念的提出；總結於1785年《道德形上學的奠基》中無上命令普遍有效的準則。

　　　　　One emphasis of Kant's deontological ethics is his insistence on the universal validity of categorical imperative. This paper is intended to reveal the true meaning of this proposition in term of the development of Kant's ethics, which include: Kant's clarification about the concept or obligation in his Prize-Essay in 1762; "the feeling of the beauty and dignity of human nature" as the only object of the moral sense in Observations upon the Feeling for the Beauty and Sublime in 1764; the founding of "what a man should be" on "what a man is" in Programme of Lectures for Winter Semester 1765-6; the emphasis on the consistence between individual will and general will in 1764-6; the introduction of the pure concept of morality in Inaugural Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World in 1770; and the conclusion with the principles of the universal validity of categorical imperative in Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals in 1785.