link to 2nd installment http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/2nd-installment-demi-rothberg.html
link to 1st installment http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/part-1-final-exam.html
The significance of death is a great theme in Harry Potter. In the Order of the Phoneix there is an encounter between Voldemort and Dumbledore where Dumbledore chooses not to take Voldermorts life while voldemort claims that there is nothing worse than death dumbledore responds like socrates stating “Your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness” Dubmbledore also tells Harry in The Socerers Stone that “Death is the next great adventure” A common conception of happiness is getting what you want. While most people's go to is money Dumbledore warns against that and many philosophers claim that money is the root of all evil. Dumbledore's challenge and belief is true happiness is getting and wanting the right things. Leading into religion, love of the wrong things such as money the authors claim that this is an evil precisely because it keeps us from loving eternal things. Naturalism claims that we die without experiencing it putting a positive spin on a negative situation.
link to 1st installment http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/part-1-final-exam.html
The significance of death is a great theme in Harry Potter. In the Order of the Phoneix there is an encounter between Voldemort and Dumbledore where Dumbledore chooses not to take Voldermorts life while voldemort claims that there is nothing worse than death dumbledore responds like socrates stating “Your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness” Dubmbledore also tells Harry in The Socerers Stone that “Death is the next great adventure” A common conception of happiness is getting what you want. While most people's go to is money Dumbledore warns against that and many philosophers claim that money is the root of all evil. Dumbledore's challenge and belief is true happiness is getting and wanting the right things. Leading into religion, love of the wrong things such as money the authors claim that this is an evil precisely because it keeps us from loving eternal things. Naturalism claims that we die without experiencing it putting a positive spin on a negative situation.
Question
of morality often pops up in Harry Potter the first one that comes to
mind is why Harry would save Dudley in the beginning of the Order of
the Phoneix after the way Dudley treated him. J.L Mackie, an atheist,
denies the theory that there is an odd moral obligation to sacrifice
ourselves for the good of others without the existence of an
all-powerful God. Jean Paul Satre also thought moral philosophy was
affected if there is no God. Immanuel Kant argues as well that Gods
existence is essential for morality. Christianity statement “God is
love” and the sacrafice of Christ is compared to the death of
Harry's mother and is agreed that “love is a greater and more
powerful thing than evil and death”. In philosophy it is a dilemma
to choose to act in self interest or being moral while in
Christianity being moral is always of self-interest. To act immorally
is to cut ourselves off from God which is hell, like living a cursed
life as Voldemort.
So
the mirror of desire scene is where Harry finds this mirror in a far
off room and when he looks into it he sees him and surrounding him is
his parents waving and smiling but when he looks around they aren't
really there. This mirror portrays one's deepest desires. In Harry's
excitement, he even brings Ron to come see it. Finally the third
time, Dumbledore awaits Harry, and tells him that the mirror is only
there to show him what he wants and warns harry not to “dwell on
dreams and forget to live” This scene brings up the debate for
danger of losing ourselves in our own false reality. The authors
state that philosophers worry about us being able to distinguish
between appearance and reality. Rene descartes, who strives to
defeat skepticism, tells us not to trust those who deceive us even
once and that the foundation of knowledge is knowledge of one owns
existence.
A
distinction that the authors discuss is between being and becoming.
They use the example in Order of the Phoneix when Harry
watches his father through Snape's pensieve and James is bullying
snape. James wasn't instantly good, he had to work on becoming a good
person. Moral maturity requires work. This is similar to Aristotle's
view Eudaimonia or long-term deep happiness. Where happiness is not a
feeling or instant it is an accumulated achievement.
The
authors stir up the question why is there evil in the world? They
first say they need to define what evil is. Rowling's books portray
evil by privation, parasitic on something good, evil due to weakness,
and evil by free choice. To do evil, the authors claim, is a failure
to do, love, or care for the right things. The books show that evil
is a lack of something good through boggarts which take on the shape
on an individuals personal biggest fear, dementors which suck souls
by taking every ounce of happiness out of a persons mind, and
voldemort, who chooses evil freely. Voldemort is able to convince
people that there is no hope but to choose him in order to gain
acquaintances. Voldemmort tries to acknowledge himself as something
more than human but has no hope for the future in that he has no wife
or children. He has a name that means will to death, will do anything
to avoid it including taking the life of others. In conclusion
from the example of voldemort there is evil in this world because of
free choice. The authors point out that the characters are not all
good or all bad for example, professor snape, a former death eater
who hates harrys father and dislikes association with harry renounces
past ties to fight along side dumbledore against voldemort. .
Production
of the Harry Potter series did indeed stir up controversy in many
ways. The first argument against this piece of literature is that it
was exposing kids to satanism in witchcraft. Also in this series rule
breaking goes unpunished such as smuggling illegal dragons in and out
of hogwarts or Hagrid sneaking practicing magic when he was forbidden
from it, lying is acceptable as use of cover-up stories, and the
distinction between good and evil is often blurred. Abanes suggest
that rowling's characters are egoistically motivated good characters
and bad alike and argues that hermoral universe has no firm rules of
right and wrong.
Lotsa good philosophy in Harry Potter, and I'm sure JKR is simply amused by all the nonsense about "satanism" etc. My favorite Dumbledore line: "Happiness is always possible, as long as you remember to turn on the light." But that's also a good one, about not obsessing on dreams to the exclusion of present possibilities.
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