Educação, formação na virtude e na liberdade: a proposta da tradição aristotélica

Virtue Ethics is an ethical school that starts from the concept of virtues formulated by Aristotle, placing it as the center of all ethics. Moral rules and actions are to be understood and analysed from the point of view of virtues, not the other way around. This conception of ethics brings important consequences in the theory and practice of education, because the formation of virtues becomes an essential element of pedagogy. Contemporary authors, such as Abbà and Samek Lodovici, developed proposals on how virtue education would take place. Such education would consist of a communicative praxis, in which the educator transmits different kinds of knowledge and guides the student. The ultimate goal of the educational process would be the acquisition of stable virtues, guided by phronesis or practical wisdom (prudence), which is the virtue of the right reason to choose concrete actions. The educated would be someone who freely adheres to moral goods, those who perfect him as a human being. This adhesion is possible by the presence of virtues, which grow and deepen as the subject acts in accordance with them.