In the plurality and the complexity of the numerous approaches to ethics, Düsing has created order with his classification of the basic types of ethics in the past and in the present. Based on his theory of models of self-consciousness, the author develops a structure of ethical principles in which he outlines an ideal ethical community of self-determining persons only. In studying the latest approaches to ethics, he shows how the basic areas of implementation for ethics have been influenced by this concept and provides suggestions for solving application problems.