This essay addresses the vicissitudes of contemporary morality from a double perspective: on the one hand. a radical questioning grounded in the prevailing technoscientific nihilism. allegedly responsible for an unprecedented transformation in the human condition, including therein reference points regarding values and norms, and, on the other hand, the emergence of appIied morals, known as bioethics, which is the result of a secular, pluralitstic, and post-universalistic understanding of such reference points. Special focus is placed on the early phase of bioethics, known as the "pioneer phase", when V. R. Potter posited his "global ethics", meant to establish a new kind of relationship between scientific facts and moral values. The essay argues that holistic concepts that seek to establish a new alliance between science and transcendence are currently being revived by this global viewpoint, applied to morality.
technoscientific nihilism; holism; global bioethics