Goodness - Free Will - Harry (Harry's good core)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117520


Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote:
<snip>
> Sometimes when a person does X, he ends up feeling good [as in, 
> rewarded, "right," warm & fuzzy inside], and this can be a positive 
> reinforcement for the behavior in question.  Intrinsic reward, you 
> know?  I maintain that for many people is simply feels good to do 
> good.  Harry may have found that sharing with Ron, for instance,
made him feel good about himself.  And he liked feeling good about 
> himself, particularly after years of being told that he's worthless.  
> This kind of positive experience might well motivate future action.
> 

Carol responds:
As I read this thread (and I admit I'm still catching up here and may
have missed something), the question is why Harry shared with Ron in
the first place. I agree that feeling good about sharing was a kind of
reward ("positive reinforcement") that would lead him to want to do
the same thing again, but I don't think he could have anticipated that
feeling. And I don't think he did it out of innate goodness, either;
we've seen Harry act vindictively even toward his friends. (I'll cite
examples if anyone challenges me here but I'm trying to be succinct.)

We know that Harry saw very little sharing at the Dursleys (who
constantly gave the ungrateful Dudley whatever he wanted but received
nothing in return, certainly not respect or affection), and he had no
friends of his own at school, but I would be quite surprised if he
hadn't witnessed friends sharing with each other at school and
receiving mutual pleasure. If so, he may have unconsciously stored up
such memories as reflecting something that he wanted for himself. On
the train with Ron, he suddenly had an opportunity to experience that
pleasure. He wouldn't need to feel good *about himself* to want to
repeat the experience: Sharing something good, whether it's a bag of
popcorn or a favorite book that you read together, is often more
pleasurable than eating or reading the "something good" alone. Harry
may well have anticipated that kind of shared pleasure based on
previous observation of other children. And the experience was
everything he thought it would be.

Carol