Education between ethics discourse and common sense Zdenko Medveš
Summary: The article develops the thesis that holistic education is provided with a universal value foundation by a moral system that intertwines constructively a number of different ethics discourses. It benefits education and enables the individual to have a broader judgement of alternatives when taking moral action. The plurality of the moral system presupposes the presence of different ethics discourses: the ethics of human rights (liberal discourse), the ethics of the common good (communitarian discourse) and the ethics of interpersonal relationships (care ethics discourse). When intertwining the three discourses in education, the teacher/educator should follow common sense, which the author defines as the ability to judge and a sense of the community. This is followed by views on how to organize concrete educational practices supporting the development of a pluralist ethical educational environment in which education (understood as communication) can equip children for judicious moral self-determination without tying them to universal norms. Subsequently, the author provides a description of the school’s new authority and, finally, he discusses ideologically acute issues and their relationship to the question of the school’s social engagement.