you can think about that formulation of the CI as referring to a possible world where the maxim is followed like a natural law.
This is what Kant seems to do in practice whenever he illustrates normative application of the CI. But his notion of a priori does appear to preclude this. Then again, Kant also managed to develop Newtonian physics a priori, so maybe he just knew something we don’t.
This is what Kant seems to do in practice whenever he illustrates normative application of the CI. But his notion of a priori does appear to preclude this. Then again, Kant also managed to develop Newtonian physics a priori, so maybe he just knew something we don’t.