A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DA TRAGÉDIA PARA A EDUCAÇÃO DAS VIRTUDES EM ARISTÓTELES

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate if it is possible to educate the virtues through tragedy, according to Aristotelian philosophy. According to Aristotle, Tragedy is the imitation of elevated actions with ornate language, which is effected through actors, arouses fear and compassion, and aims at the purification of these passions. The initial hypothesis is that the passions, in some way, interfere with our choices, and therefore, at first, we will analyze the relationship between virtues and passions in the Nicomachean Ethics; Then, in a second moment, we will see the relationship between passions and rhetorical discourse in Rhetoric; and finally, we will see how Tragedy arouses the passions of fear and compassion, trying to answer whether it can contribute to an education of the virtues. We intend to show from a reading of the way Aristotle refers to the passions, in ethics, rhetoric and poetics, how Tragedy, which mimics high actions, can in some sense contribute to an education of virtues.