Orthos logos: a educação moral em Aristóteles

Abstract

Aristotle approaches intricate questions of moral philosophy in his theory of virtues. In investigating the role of reason in human action, the philosopher promotes a deep discussion of what he considers the key point of virtuous action, that is, action based on a mean, something between excess and deficiency. Throughout the debate, a controversial question arises, something that Aristotle calls 'orthos logos' commonly translated as 'right reason'. My effort in this master's dissertation is to investigate what comes to be, in the Aristotle´s moral philosophy, the 'orthos logos', how its development in the human soul is possible. The goal is to understand how the 'orthos logos' enables the part of the nonrational human soul to identify and determine the moral end. The difficulty of the theme arises when Aristotle affirms that by following the command of reason, human action finds virtue and "right reason" is therefore essential to virtuous acting. Many interpreters translate 'orthos logos' as 'correct reason'; then how can anything considered as rational belongs to the part of the non-rational soul? Here is my main challenge. I will investigate how the 'orthos logos' finds the mean, following the commands of the virtue of character and thus ensuring the performance of the correct action. I also intend to demonstrate how the 'orthos logos', as a fundamental part of virtuous action, can be considered the core of moral education. Aristotle doesn´t define it directly, but its importance for the formation of character is evident.