Educational paths on the sacred land

Abstract

In this article we will speak about beauty and his powerful educational role: beauty as ethics’ formative way. And as grace, that is that well-being that leads to the good of the self, in the relation with the others. Let us clarify the terms of the speech: we define ethics as a deep reflection on the good, a moral theory that directs on behaviours and draws paths of meaning in and with the world and, as a consequence, it defines our existential horizons. But, while Moral is relative to uses, to costumes, to ages, in short, to historical and cultural contests, ethics follows general principles, because investigates on the deep meaning of human and his finalities. We believe that ethics is the specific of human because it implies a reflection that, in freedom, overcomes natural instinct and that, in the meanwhile allows us to knowingly “reflect on ourselves about us reflecting”. In short: Because there is a reflection that freely and knowingly overcomes instinct; phenomenon which, by now, seems to be absent in other animals. We deduct that freedom and self-consciousness are inescapable elements of ethics as they are for education.