Snape as infidel was Re: Kant and Snape and Ethics and Everything

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 150337


Nora:
I get the suspicion that if Snape is to live, he's going to have to
have some kind of concession scene.

Pippin:
Oh dear, supercessionism. Let's just say that I don't think you have
to agree 100% with  Dumbledore's philosophy to prefer
it in every respect to Lord Voldemort's.  Likewise Dumbledore
need not demand 100% agreement with his precepts in order
to trust  that his followers are not Voldemortists. 

In any case the most excellent moral philosophy does not
guarantee the morality of the person who espouses it. There's
that little problem of living up to our beliefs which most of us
have.


> > Betsy Hp:
> > This...  It bothers me a bit.  I think part of it is the idea that 
> > the Gryffindors are somehow *better* than the other houses.  That 
> > they've got the best ideals.  Also, it seems to go against the 
> > healing of the rift concept.  If the houses need to come together, 
> > shouldn't they all be morally equal?

Pippin:

If you've chosen your religion, or your moral philosophy, or your
House, you probably do think it's better than the others. Otherwise
you'd have chosen something else. A philosophy of tolerance must
take this into account, or it's useless for the real world, IMO.

But the  excellence of a  religion or a  philosophy  or a House tells us
nothing about the virtues of the individuals who belong to it, or 
even of the group as a whole, which may be under the influence
of the worst of its members. The Gryffindors have no 
grounds to assume their superiority over anybody just because
they're Gryffindors. Nobody is guilty or innocent by association.

Nora:
> 
> The whole "I hoped Professor Snape would be able to get over..." 
> speech at the end of OotP seemed to me, at least, to be a hope not 
> only for the specific actions (that Snape would come to see Harry as 
> a person in and of himself and maybe even love him like Dumbledore 
> obviously does), but that those actions would actually be a deep 
> change in Snape's perspective on life.  

Pippin:
But Dumbledore blames Snape's lack of recovery on Snape's wounds not
on his choices and there is no hint that he considers it a moral failure
of Snape's. 

Harry thinks that Snape's hatred sabotaged the occlumency lesson,
drove Sirius to the Ministry and made him kill Dumbledore, but there
is ample canon for disputing this and for seeing Harry as having
scapegoated Snape as infidels have always been scapegoated.  


Indeed in HBP we learned that  their roots of the tragedy overtaking the
wizarding world go back centuries, far beyond Voldemort.

And though the series is about choices, if our choices are important it
is because they can affect the course of the future and others besides
ourselves. But that means that the choices of the past and of other
people can affect us too.

Pippin