The present study is an in-depth discussion of the interface between educational and ethical problems, understanding pedagogy as the art/science aiming at good education/instruction/training. For this purpose, the text will summon concepts from Aristotle's ethics. Immersed in Classical Greek Thought, it will attempt to rescue a term which is originally interdisciplinary - paideia. Next, this essay tries to highlight some aspects of the illuminist concept of the theme, taking advantage of the Kantian notion of categoric imperative, which had been preceeded by Rousseau's opinion asserting that will - and not reason - would be the distinctive feature of the human race in a natural environment. Piaget's idea of reciprocity ethics is also evoked here. Through a diachronic approach of the theme, concepts of classical authors who have debated the relationship between ethics and education will be analyzed, focusing on the sense Hanna Arendt conferred to authority as a distinctive criteria of the asymmetric relationship between educators (adult generations) and students (new generations). As an operating concept and assumption, Arendt advocates that the educational act necessarily entails a conservative dimension: the mission of educators is to protect the new generations from the world and the world from the new generations - so that they do not to destroy the accumulated supports and cultural heritage.
Education; Ethics; Philosophy of education; Pedagogy