ABSTRACT
Contemporary ethical discourse is faced with a remarkable ambiguity. On the one hand, we find the human subject thoroughly de-naturalised. Self-determination is regarded as the starting-point for moral decision-making, human nature is reduced to being free and reasonable, and the idea that nature might serve as a criterium for moral behaviour or as a standard for moral guidance seems to have lost all credibility. On the other hand, however, we are faced with the opposite effort as well, namely to naturalise human beings, considering them solely in biological terms and reducing them to one particular species among others, displaying a life-pattern that can be described in purely instinctual terms.
