Introduction

The protagonist of ethic, particularly of the deontological ethic that places the concept of duty at its center, is the moral subject. The moral subject’s action is based on the recognition of the duty that, as a rational being, he discovers autonomously. This ethic marks the culmination of the individual’s process of empowerment as an active agent and, in a deep sense, ascribes to her some of the characteristics ascribed to God—a free being who legislates her moral duties for herself and by herself.