Kind of a niche question but, can any Kant lovers in my audience clue me into how the fuck the categorical imperative works

Like the most famous example is that you shouldn’t lie to nazis about anne frank living in your attic because if everyone else lied, the world would be worse, and you should perform every action in such a way that they could be extrapolated to all people, right?

But how did we decide that “lying” was the primary action of a person lying to nazis to save a life. Maybe the action im taking that can be extrapolated to moral law is “saving innocent lives”

How did he land on lying here lol

Oh so one answer is something like like “when you lie to the nazi, you’re treating him as a mere means to achieve some particular, assuming his actions and preventing him from being a moral actor. Rather than treating him and his decisions as ends onto themselves”

fine ok