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army1987 comments on Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease - Less Wrong
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In that case, you can fit anything whatsoever into the categorical imperative by defining an appropriate reference class and action. For instance, I could justify robbery with "How would I like it, if everyone were to execute 'if (person is Jiro) then rob else do nothing'". The categorical imperative ceases to have meaning unless some actions and some reference classes are unacceptable.
That's too brief. Because :"what do most people mean when they say this" actually matters. They clearly don't mean for it to include "if (person is Jiro) then rob else do nothing" as a single action that can be universalized by the rule.
The reason that doesn't work is that people who are not Jiro would not like it if everyone were to execute 'if (person is Jiro) then rob else do nothing', so they couldn't justify you robbing that way. The fact that the rule contains a gerrymandered reference class isn't by itself a problem.
Does the categorical imperative require everyone to agree on what they would like or dislike? That seems brittle.
This post discusses the possibility of people “not in moral communion” with us, with the example of a future society of wireheads.
I've always heard it, the Golden Rule, and other variations to be some form of "would you like it if everyone were to do that?" I've never heard of it as "would everyone like it if everyone were to do that?". I don't know where army1987 is getting the second version from.