The discussion concerns the actual and potential ethical ramifications of technology. All ethics are based on a particular understanding of humanity and its reality. This principled position has to be maintained against discursive and procedural ethical approaches as it does against the utilitarian levelling of basic theoretical questions. The present study, undertaken from a Protestant perspective, uses the analysis of two contemporary conceptions of the philosophy of technology (G. Ropohl, W. Ch. Zimmerli) to demonstrate that the ethics of technology is relevant not only for technologists but also for human activity in general.