Summary
Title: Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts
Author: by David Baggett, Shawn Klein, William Irwin
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812694554
Pro:
• Offers a different perspective on the Harry Potter stories
• Encourages readers to step back from the stories and see the larger themes in Harry Potter
Con:
• Uneven quality — some essays are very good, some mediocre
Description:
• Philosophical analysis of themes raised in the Harry Potter books
• Argues that philosophical questions about topics like ethics and courage are part of popular culture
Book Review
Open Court has published several books that examine aspects of popular culture for the philosophical questions they raise, so it’s no surprise that they’ve included a volume on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. Essays from 17 experts on philosophy, ethics, and literature are divided into four sections based upon the four houses of Hogwart’s school.
Gryffindor examines character issues (courage, self-deception, friendship), Hufflepuff examines ethics (heaven & hell, social justice), Slytherin examines the nature of evil (ambition, moral imagination), and Ravenclaw looks at metaphysics (nature of fantasy, personal identity, foreknowledge & freedom).
Are the Harry Potter books really amenable to philosophical analysis? Philosophy and literature certainly go hand-in-hand, so the answer to this question probably turns on whether you think the Harry Potter books qualify as any sort of literature or are merely “junk food” on paper. There are those who think the latter, but I’m inclined to the former. The Harry Potter books are not Shakespeare, but they do address serious themes and Rowling’s ability to tackle them in interesting ways is, I think, an important reason for why the books are popular.
In many ways, philosophy is about asking interesting questions and forcing us to step back to closely examine our thoughts in order to help us live better lives. Literature can be an invaluable aid in this because it presents us with alternate realities, forcing us to use our imaginations and consider how our own world might be different.
David Baggett argues for powerful connections between literature, imagination, and morality:
- “Good yarns, such as Rowling’s, appeal to both the head and heart, eliciting from us the right sorts of emotions, and providing us vivid moral paradigms that Aristotle thought were essential to moral education. More suggestive than dogmatic, they teach us to empathize with the sufferings of others, enhancing our capacity for seeing the world through another’s eyes.... A powerful imagination functions centrally in any commitment to morality, because so much of ethics consists in having the right kinds of emotional and intuitive responses to situations as they arise.”
Perhaps because the philosophical importance of literature is so tied up with its ability to get us to see through others’ eyes, the best essays focus upon the characters themselves. The nature of courage is examined through Harry Potter, self-deception through the Dursleys, and social justice through the actions of Hermione.
It also tends to be true that evil characters can be much more interesting than good ones, so the essays that examine evil in the Harry Potter books are quite interesting. Steven W. Patterson addresses the question which many readers must have surely asked: if Slytherin is such a bad house, why are they a part of Hogwarts at all? Patterson explains that Slytherin’s primary characteristic is not “evil” but ambition — the desire to be the best and do the most. The desire to excel should be regarded as a virtue. The presence of Slytherin is thus understandable within the story but also from a literary perspective because it allows Rowling to depict how an excess of ambition can be harmful.
Like other books in this series the quality of the essays is uneven. The best essays are the ones which talk about some general topic (courage, ambition), explain how they fit in with the Harry Potter stories, and how the stories can teach us about that issue. This isn’t the best or the worst volume in the series but it will probably be enjoyed by those already interested in Harry Potter.
