Good moral core (Re: Dirty Harry/Clean Harry)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 117109


> Alla: I think we got a little confused here or maybe it is just me.
> 
> What do you think is the reason for Harry to choose the side of good?
> 
> To make his choice, he must have had SOME reason, instead of just 
> saying I want to be good from now on. Why did he want to be good? 

Neri:
I don't think Harry ever decided "to be good" (though perhaps Hermione
did ;-) ).  He just had a series of choices in his life, as we all
have, and in most of them, or at least in those that mattered the
most, he tried to do things right. Inside him he had his own personal
reasons for each of these different choices, but if you ask about
outside reasons (like "because he was loved by his parents during the
first year of his life") then such reasons discount his free will. If
you accept that he has free will, you must be satisfied with "because
after considering the options (or not) he decided that option A was
better than option B".
> 
> Alla:
> 
> No, he did not have to do all that and I have no sympathy whatsoever 
> towards the choices he made. Moreover, I have less trouble 
> understanding why Tom Riddle made them than why Harry did. Tom hated 
> his father with all his heart and perhaps his sociopathy went from 
> there.

Neri:
Once you ascribe his choices to his sociopathy or such things you
discount his free will. If you think his sociophathy was so strong
that he could not resist it even if he decided to, then you have to
claim that he has no free will, and he should be treated like an
earthquake or a virus or a similar mindless thing. I don't think this
is what JKR meant, although it would make the story less complex.

> Alla: 
> But what made Harry's free will to work that way? 

Neri:
Again, nothing makes free will work in ANY way. If it does, then it's
not free will. 

> Alla:
>He clearly made his 
> choices earlier than he was eleven. Why?

Neri:
He made them before and he made them after. Why? Because he thought
that these were the right choices.