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

[Kelsey Dangelo]

No: HPFGUIDX 117255


Del replies : <<For normal, every day choices, this
would work. But for the heroic choices, I have a
problem. Those choices *ended up* being good ones
because things always turned miraculously well. But
things always came close to turning very bad. So
either Harry is blind to the consequences his choices
*would* have had if he weren't outrageously lucky
(that's very possible, he's only a kid after all), or
there's something inside him that blinds him to this
aspect of his previous decisions when he has to make
another one of the same kind. <snip>>>

Kelsey:
Very good point!

I wonder though about the place of consequences or end
results in moral choices. 

I think that we wonder if Harry did the right thing
(particularly at the end of OOP) because he failed
(and because Sirius was killed). If he had succeeded,
we would probably think that he had done the right
thing, sacrificing his safety for someones life and
to protect the wizarding world. [I think that his
friends decide to make the same moral choice by
joining Harry.]

Since its impossible to determine the outcome when
faced with a moral choice, one must determine what
"right" or "good" or "for the greater good" or
"follows a moral code" at the time. Granted, this goes
against the old adage, "The road to hell is paved with
good intentions."

I once heard this philosophical puzzle, where Hitlers
grandmother is carrying the infant down the stairs. If
she were falling, and a man next to her had the choice
to save the baby or not to, which would be the right
moral decision? If the man let the baby fall, he would
be saving the lives of millions of people, but, at the
time he could never know that. He would be letting a
baby die.

Then theres the question of lying to protect someone
or save someones life. So doing the right thing at
the time without thought of consequences isnt a cure
all, either.

Kelsey


		
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