A formal criterion for the moral status of acts, such as the Categorical Imperative, must begin by establishing a criterion for the moral status of some sort of principle. Formal conditions cannot apply directly to entities having no linguistic structure. Kant hopes the Categorical Imperative can be used directly to isolate certain maxims of duty. Since, as he thinks, any act has a single maxim, it will then be possible to determine the moral status of acts, by seeing what their maxim’s status is. His claim is ambitious;

The Categorical Imperative is to provide in the first place a decision procedure for maxims of duty, and as a second step a decision procedure for the moral status of acts. It is not merely to differentiate those maxims and acts which are morally acceptable from those which are not. It is a precision instrument to test whether an act is obligatory, forbidden or permissible, and also whether it is morally worthy, morally unworthy or lacking in moral worth.