Against the essentialism of the conceptions of social justice as development, the article argues that goods are always shaped by reciprocal relations and never in an objective and impersonal manner. The deontological core of morality resides in the critique of the ways of acting grounded in a natural ontology, while the broad set of normative beliefs that we call ethics is based on the critique of goods and presupposes a dialectical ontology. Revealing that any good thing is ambivalent is the ethical -And ancient- form of practical reflection. The formation of reasonable goods, ends, and values takes place in the field of reciprocal interchange.