 One of Leibowitz’s concerns is that for imperatives to be truly categorical, they must draw their authority from something other than human needs and values, which are too weak a foundation to ground categorical imperatives. One can always excuse oneself with the claim that other people’s needs are not overriding in any given situation. There is no escape, however, from the authority of a divine demand, so locating ethical imperatives within a religious system gives them the necessary foundation. Their position as commandments transforms them from “mere good counsel, a noble aspiration, or a sublime ideal,” and instead gives them “the reality of law, something one is compelled to take seriously as one must take a police ordinance seriously” (Judaism, 19). Yet given his intentionalism, for Leibowitz this must simultaneously deprive an act of its ethical character. Acting for noble ideals, while legitimate, would still render acts ethical, not religious.