the.com/categorical
no ifs, no ands, no buts — just a flat, unbending yes or no.
means absolute and unconditional, admitting no exceptions or qualifications.
from from aristotle's categories, the basic classes into which all statements about being can be sorted; kant later hijacked the word for his categorical imperative, a moral law binding no matter the circumstances — and that's the sense that stuck.
kant's twistturned a logic term into an ethics bomb
opposite moodhypothetical, which always has an if attached
math cousincategory theory borrows the rigor, not the absolutism