ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of the statute of applied ethics departing from the question of moral knowledge. Ethics referring to specific fields, or applied ethics, can be placed in the middle ground between general ethics and decision-taking in singular situations. Professional ethics could counterbalance the homogenisation of moral agents and of the 'moral space' in general. Communitarian ethics, inspired by Aristotelian thought, place the focus on the social context, on cultural traditions, on the morally qualified agent based on virtues; thereby providing a different approach from professional ethos which is always historical and contextual. In deontological ethics the unity of moral life rests on a person's autonomy and dignity. Respect for personal freedom, dignity and rights, of each person as an end in itself forms the basis of deontological ethics striving for universality. Any teleological ethical project carried out in the present day has to accommodate the idea of a person as an end in itself.
