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Originally Posted by asaris
It's Kant's basic ethics text; he develops the categorical imperative in it -- "Act only such that your action expresses a universalizable maxim" or "Treat people always as ends, never as means". He takes it that this is merely an expression of what people mean by ethics. His main theoretical goal is to show that belief in God is necessary for ethics.
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I'm looking at my ethics reader(Louis Pojman's The Moral life) and Foundation for the metaphysics of morals is what the excerpt is taken from.
For the originating poster, if you can find Louis Pojman's introduction to Kantian ethics you might find everything a bit clearer.
"Ethics is not contingent absolute, and its duties op imperatives are not hypothetical but categorical(non conditional)...This is Kant's first formulation of his categorical imperative. "Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law."