Moral values in sport as a necessary part in the concept of ethical education

Abstract

Starting from Plato's Th e Republic where we can easily note Socrates' statements that music and gymnastics can be applied to creative activity, i.e. that "there are two arts for which I would say that a god gave them as a present to the human race – music and gymnastics because ... love for knowledge in them – not for the soul and the body separately, but for their harmonious alignment" – it is logical to wonder about the importance of sport for the moral upbringing of an individual, but what is more, about its importance in the development of an individual into an ethically autonomous person (personality), i.e. whether moral values of sport should be included today not only in the moral upbringing but also in the ethical education of an individual? Th is comes from the fact that in addition to instrumental values of sport, there are also its intrinsic values which are very important for further development of a person on his/her way to autonomous formation. All of the abovementioned only indicates the main basis for the direction of considerations in this paper: what are the ethical values that sport off ers and that we set in sport and from there about the role and importance of sport in broader spheres of moral development; further, the role of school in setting and necessity of sport and its ethical value in moral upbringing and ethical education in a person's character development, to be able to respond to the dilemma about the basis and justifi cation of UNESCO's imperative on the introduction of sport and its ethical values into the concept of ethical education.