An Educative Inquiry on Children’s Ethical Thinking: The “Melarete” Project.

MelArete is a project for ethical education because it embraces the definition of ethics given by Ricoeur, who describes it as «aiming at a good life lived with and for others in just institutions» and having care of them. Ethics and care are related dimensions necessary for life to be human: that‘s why it is possible to talk about an ―ethics of care‖ (Mayeroff; Noddings; Held; Tronto; Mortari). According to this position, it is possible to affirm that to care for the others means to search for the good. Since the core of caring is made of virtues (Mortari), an education to ethics in the light of care is an education to virtue. As a research Melarete is intended as a ―service research‖: within a pragmatist perspective (Dewey, Rorty), an educational research should be at the service of reality in order to contribute to the improvement of the educative experience. Following this ethical perspective the research must not to be on children, not even it is sufficient to be with children, but it must be for children, as it must offer to the children a good experience to live through that is capable to nourish their life.