ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a number of ethical theories, each one sheds light on one specific aspect of human conduct and discusses in succession deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics. Deontology emphasises in particular the constitutive side of operational practice, consequentialism emphasises the contextual side and virtue ethics the regulative side. But as currently under the influence of science and technology the radius of action of people increases infinitely, and with it the nature of human action also changes, it cannot evade developing new forms of ethics. The first rule of thumb deals with the way in which normativity is objectified in technological structures and the second with the way in which the acting subject has been taken up in a web of normatively qualified contexts and practices. It is all too easy to evade one's own accountability, but it is vital to know that one has only a limited range and capacity and that one cannot do the impossible.
