The author shows how Norberto Bobbio reacted to the so-called «third way». Here Bobbio is considered a paradigmatic example of a man of third ways. In the sphere of ethics, of political and civic engagement for instance, Bobbio refused on one hand conformism, the servile spirit, indifference, passivity, and on the other hand he condemned political activity lacking critical discernment. Bobbio preferred the «third way» between these two extremes; both in his direct political engagement with the Partito d’Azione in the years immediately after the end of the second world war and in his indirect civic and political engagement that he maintained throughout his life. Bobbio however always refuted false or unstructured «third ways», such as the third way suggested by the PCI that was supposed to be a middle way between communism and social-democracy.