Something I'd like to see in the Books

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No: HPFGUIDX 83102

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti" <
june.diamanti at b...> wrote:
> [snip]
> However, there seems to be little taught to the budding wizards at
> Hogwarts the very central idea that with great power comes great
> reponsibility.
> 
> Is it me or is everyone just wand happy? 
[snip]
> 
> All the same, I would have liked to see some ethical training in the
> Hogwarts curriculum. When it isn't appropriate to use spells, when
> it is. Is there any other effect of spells apart from the obvious.
> For instance, if you used magic to push some clouds away because
> they were raining on you, what is the effect of those clouds raining
> somewhere else and is it a good effect?
> 
[snip]
> 
> So what does anyone think? Am I just a stuffy spoilsport moralist,
> have I missed entirely on some fairly explicit treatment of
> responsibility by JKR, or does anyone agree that there should be
> ethics classes?
> 
> June

Excellent post. You bring up some very good questions, and although I 
probably only have more questions, here's my thoughts...

In order to determine whether or not there are ethical considerations at work 
in the Potterverse, we'd have to figure out what ethics really means. Having 
taken a course on the subject in high school and another one in college, I am 
no closer getting at a satisfying definition. Let's say just for the time being that 
ethics deals with the consequences of people's actions, and that the kind of 
responsibility you talk about is precisely about taking such consequences into 
account.

Is the WW "wand-happy"? Yes, and no. On the wand hand, as your other 
respondents note, magic is presented in the Potterverse as equivalent to 
Muggle technology. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but the point of technology 
is to make our lives easier (whether it actually does or not is a debate for 
another time and place ;-) ). We certainly see a lot of that in the Potterverse, 
you can levitate things instead of carrying them, have household chores done 
for you, etc. The greater consequences (or the ethical results, as it were) of 
such acts are probably nimial, so they are not likely to elicit much ethical 
education.

Now we know that magic is also used for other purposes. Let's take minor 
jinxes and hexes and such. If you hex your rival (say, Malfoy) and turn him 
into an oozing slug, or a bouncing ferret, or whatever, he can be sorted out by 
someone and returned to his original state, also by magical means. So 
beyond the humiliation there is not a vastly huge damage you have caused 
him. Of course there is SOME damage, so these types of magical uses are 
perhaps less ethical. 

>From Harry's POV (which is the only one we see), has he been taught it may 
be unethical to hex another person? I'd say yes. At the very least he knows 
there are consequences. Snape does not stand for silly wand-waving, 
McGonagall punishes people who mess around in her class, she is apalled 
when Fake!Moody turns Draco into a ferret, and, on the extreme, Umbridge 
regards most spells as too dangerous for school-aged children. Harry is also 
highly disturbed when he sees James and Sirius hexing Snape for no 
apparent reason. Recall that Draco and co. have been turned into things 
when Harry and co. have been defending themselves. They have yet to go 
and start a fight, and even the escalation from words to magic has yielded bad 
results (see slug-burping Ron). So, through Harry's eyes, the reader is made 
to realize hexing has consequences, in a very subtle JKR sort of way.

Now, we know also that there are major curses that cannot be reversed, like 
the Unforgivables and the Memory charm. The former are illegal, and having 
been made to experience them himself, Harry is aware they are also 
unethical (note that law and ethics are not necessarily the same, also a 
debate for another time). He doesn't need to be told that they are bad karma, 
it's fairly obvious. The memory charm is where I think your post hits home the 
most, because although the kids have not been taught how to do it, they have 
seen it done quite a lot and in a context disturbingly lacking in admonitions of 
the "don't try this at home" sort. 

We have seen that minor "bad" wizards have used it to protect their own 
secrets and cover their own behinds: Lockhart, Crouch Sr. on Bertha Jorkins. 
We have not seen the DEs or LV use it, possibly because it's just easier to kill 
someone or put them under the Imperius Curse.  But in any case, the trio have 
seen how unethical these instances were.

OTOH, we have also seen law-abiding wizards use the memory charm to 
protect the Statute of Secrecy. Well, I could go into a rant about the things that 
are allowed to be done in RL with the pretext of "national security", and 
whether they are ethical or not, but let's not go there. I am merely pointing out 
that a huge ethical debate could go into that issue alone.

There's also more general ethical issues, not directly involved with the use of 
magic, such as the giving or withholding of information that happens in OoP. 
Does Harry have the right to know *everything*? (I don't think he does know 
everything yet) If so, when and how should he be told? Did the Potters/
Longbottoms know about the prophecy? Did they have a right to know? 
Should DD have told them or others more or less than he did? If the 
Longbottoms were tortured for information, doesn't this mean that the more 
information one has, the more dangerous it is? Is it ethical to give such 
information, then? 

Should the house-elves be forced into freedom? Should Harry tell his friends 
about the contents of the prophecy? Are they more at risk knowing or not 
knowing? And should he, if he can, kill LV in order to save those *countless, 
faceless thousands* that DD talks about? Should Harry be allowed a say in 
DD's plan? Should DD have a plan at all, seeing as how it concerns other 
people whose free will may be compromised? Does saving lives potentially 
justify everything and anything?

OK, now that I have gone on for too long, my conclusion is that yes, ethics 
education might do Hogwarts students some good, and perhaps they do take 
something to that effect in their 6th or 7th year. Yes, many uncomfrotable 
situations arise in the story within the WW. Yes, the WW is potentially a corrupt 
and ethically suspect culture. So is the real world, in spite of best efforts to the 
contrary. And yes, JKR has dealt already with ethical issues, albeit in a subtle 
and between-the-lines fashion. More power to her, kids don't like being 
sermoned (and neither do adults ;-) ).

Gorda