Intrinsically Good (and evil) magic (Fwd from OTC)

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 59219

Amy wrote: 

> Sacrifice is intrinsically good?  What about people who sacrificed 
> themselves in order to steer a jet plane into a building?  We may 
> balk at calling their act self-sacrifice, because we have such 
> positive associations with that term (Memorial Day speeches 
hailing 
> those who made "the supreme sacrifice," e.g.), but self-sacrifice 
it 
> was, and to my mind, it proves that sacrifice can be as powerfully 
> evil as it is powerfully good.

I think that is a different issue to whether sacrifice is 
intrinsically good *magic*.  However, we do have the example of 
Pettigrew's sacrifice of his hand in Voldemort's rebirthing spell to 
suggest that at least some lesser sacrifices can be turned to 
magical evil use.

Part of the difficulty of this topic is the meaning of good and 
evil.  If by 'intrinsically' good we mean that something is good 
despite the bad motive that uses it (think of the doctrine of the 
efficacy of the sacraments despite the quality of priests), or that 
it can't be used unless the motive is good (think of the Grail), 
then we are forced to think in terms of consequences.

As Amy points out, taken across all consequences of an act such as a 
spell, we get lost in the complexity and interconnectedness of 
things.  An alternative is to suggest that the good or bad are 
connected with the person who casts the spell, or the person who is 
the immediate object of the spell.  Thus it might be that a defining 
characteristic of the Dark Arts is that in some magical way they 
corrupt the person who uses them, whatever the motive (now think of 
Sauron's ring).  This would be quite distinct from the corrupting 
effect of all badly motivated acts.  Or that sacrifice on behalf of 
someone is only good in its magical effects on them.  If so that 
would imply that Pettigrew's sacrifice of his hand would work out 
for Voldemort's ultimate good (which might be quite different from 
what Voldemort thinks that good to be).

Another point is the idea that magic implicitly involves intention, 
in which case it may be that some magic only makes sense if the 
intention is somehow good or evil.  The Patronus might be an example 
of good magic of this sort, depending on what is really meant by a 
happy thought.

David