Winter/Spring 2013

1

Winter/Spring 2013

Philosophy 276: Section A

Harry Potter & Philosophy:

Wizarding & Wisdom

Schedule of Readings & Additional Resources

Schedule

Readings in [brackets] below are optional. If they aren’t in one of the assigned texts, I’ll provide them electronically (either as PDFs or Word Docs) or as a photocopy. While these optional readings will not be the basis for Homework questions, they are certainly commended for use in debates or essays.

Introduction:

Week One (January 15):

J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Faerie Stories” (PDF)

Gareth B. Matthews, “Finding Platform 9¾: The Idea of a Different Reality” (in Harry Potter &

Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts, hereafter HP&P) 175-185

Kristina Karin Shull, “Is the Magic Gone?” (fromAnamesa, Fall 2005:61-73) (PDF)

Free Will & Prophecy:

Week Two (January 22):

Gregory Bassham, “The Prophecy-Driven Life: Foreknowledge and Freedom at Hogwarts” (in HP&P)

213-226

Jeremy Pierce, “Destiny in the Wizarding World” (in The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy:

Hogwarts for Muggles, hereafter UHP) 35-49

[Gregory Bassham, “Love Potion No. 9¾” (in UHP) 66-79]

Boethius, excerpt from The Consolation of Philosophy V.3-4, 6 on foreknowledge and free will

(Word Doc)

Augustine, excerpt from On Free Choice of the Will (Word Doc)

Identity & Soul:

Week Three (January 29):

Jason T. Eberl, “Why Voldemort Won’t Just Die Already: What Wizards Can Teach Us about

Personal Identity” (in HP&P) 200-212

[Aristotle, excerpt from On the Soul (Word Doc)]

Thomas Aquinas, excerpt from Summa TheologiaeI.75 on the soul (Word Doc)

Descartes, excerpts from Meditations (2 and 6) andDiscourse on Method on the soul (Word Doc)

Week Four (February 5):

Scott Sehon, “The Soul in Harry Potter” (in UHP) 7-21

Eric Saidel, “Sirius Black: Man or Dog?” (inUHP) 22-34

Benjamin J. Bruxvoort Lipscomb and W. Christopher Stewart, “Magic, Science, and the Ethics of

Technology” (in HP&P) 77-91 (this really falls more under next week’s topic – power – and a prior topic – freedom)

Politics & Power:

Week Five (February 12):

First Debate Round

David Lay Williams & Alan J. Kellner, “Dumbledore, Plato, & the Lust for Power” (in UHP) 129-140

Beth Admiraal Regan Lance Reitsma, “Dubmledore’s Politics” (in UHP) 113-127

[Benjamin Barton, “Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy” (from Michigan Law Review 04

(May 2006): 1523-1538) (PDF)]

Plato, “Seventh Letter” and excerpt from Republicon power and desire(Word Doc)

Gender:

Week Six (February 19):

Mimi R. Gladstein, “Feminism and Equal Opportunity: Hermione and the Women of Hogwarts” (in

HP&P) 49-59

Anne Collins Smith, “Harry Potter, Radical Feminism, and the Power of Love” (in UHP) 80-93

Christine Schoefer, “Harry Potter’s Girl Trouble: The World of Everyone’s Favorite Kid Wizard Is a

Place Where Boys Come First” (from Salon 30 (October 200)) (Word Doc)

[Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpt from The Vindication of the Rights of Women (Word Doc)]

1st and 2nd Wave Feminism Timeline (PDF)

Magical Races & Animal Welfare:

Week Seven (February 26):

Second Debate Round

Steven W. Patterson, “Kreacher’s Lament: SPEW as a Parable on Discrimination, Indifference, and

Social Justice” (in HP&P) 105-117

[Travis Prinzi, “How Half-Bloods Become Purebloods: And What That Says about Race in the

Wizarding World” (in Harry Potter and Imagination) (Photocopy)]

S. Joel Garver, “On the Care of Magical Creatures: Wizarding and Animal Welfare” (Word Doc)

Spring Break:

Week Eight (March 5):

No Class – Spring Break Holidays

Epistemology & Memory:

Week Nine (March 12):

Diana Mertz Hsieh, “Dursley Duplicity: The Morality and Psychology of Self-Deception” (in HP&P)

22-37

Gregory Bassham, “Choices vs. Abilities: Dumbledore on Self-Understanding” (in UHP) 157-171

Aristotle, excerpt from Nicomachean Ethics, III.1-3 on voluntary action, deliberation, and choice

(Word Doc)

Immanuel Kant, excerpt from Grounding for the Metaphysics of Moralson action (Word Doc)

[Rene Descartes, excerpt from Meditations (1 and 2) on doubt (Word Doc)]

Week Ten (March 19):

Third Debate Round

S. Joel Garver, “The Magic of Personal Transformation” (in UHP) 172-184

Amy Kind, “A Pensieve for Your Thoughts? Harry Potter and the Magic of Memory” (in UHP) 198-

211

[Hans Georg Gadamer, excerpt from Truth and Method on interpretation and tradition (Word Doc)]

Augustine, excerpt from Confessions on memory (Word Doc)

John Locke, excerpt from Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingIII.xxvii on memory and identity

(Word Doc)

Happiness & Virtue:

Week Eleven (March 26):

Jerry L. Walls, “Heaven, Hell, and Harry Potter” (in HP&P) 63-76

Shawn E. Klein, “The Mirror of Erised: Why We Should Heed Dumblebore’s Warning” (in HP&P)

92-104

Aristotle, from Nicomachean Ethics I on happiness (Word Doc)

[George Mavrodes, “Religion and the Queerness of Morality” (PDF)]

Robert Nozick, excerpt from Anarchy, State, and Utopia on the experience machine (Word Doc)

Week Twelve (April 2):

Tom Morris, “The Courageous Harry Potter” (in HP&P) 9-21

Steven W. Patterson, “Is Ambition a Virtue? Why Slytherin Belongs at Hogwarts” (in HP&P) 121-131

Aristotle, excerpts from Nicomachean Ethics on virtues and courage (Word Doc)

Friendship & Loyalty:

Week Thirteen (April 9):

Fourth Debate Round

HaraldThorsrud, “Voldemort’s Agents, Malfoy’s Cronies, and Hagrid’s Chums: Friendship in Harry

Potter” (in HP&P) 38-48

Andrew P. Mills, “Patriotism, House Loyalty, and the Obligations of Belonging” (in UHP) 97-112

Aristotle, excerpts from Nicomachean Ethics on friendship (Word Doc)

Martha Nussbaum, “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” (Word Doc)

Evil:

Week Fourteen (April 16):

David and Catherine Deavel, “A Skewed Reflection: The Nature of Evil” (in HP&P) 132-147

Jennifer Hart Weed, “Voldemore, Boethius, and the Destructive Effects of Evil” (in HP&P) 148-157

Augustine, excerpts from fromConfessions Book 7 and Enchiridion 10-12 on evil (Word Doc)

Love, Redemption, & Death:

Week Fifteen (April 23):

[Fifth Debate Round]

Catherine Jack Deavel and David Paul Deavel, “Choosing Love: The Redemption of Severus Snape”

(inUHP) 53-65

Charles Taliaferro, “The Real Secret of the Phoenix: Moral Regeneration through Death” (in UHP)

229-245

Plato, excerpt from Phaedo on the meaning of death (Word Doc)

Week Sixteen (April 30):

Jonathan L. Walls and Jerry L. Walls, “Beyond Godric’s Hollow: Life after Death and the Search for

Meaning” (in UHP) 246-257

Michael W. Austin, “Why Harry and Socrates Decide to Die: Virtue and the Common Good” (in

UHP) 258-270

Plato, excerpts from Apology and Republic on death and morality (Word Doc)

Blaise Pascal, excerpt from Pensées on death and immortality (Word Doc)

Resources

The following articles and chapters (arranged by topic) might prove useful as you prepare essays and debates:

Politics & Power:

Barton, Benjamin. “Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy”.Michigan Law Review 104 (May 2006):

1523-1538.

Castro, Adam-Troy.“From Azkaban to Abu Ghraib”. Ed. Mercedes Lackey. Mapping the World of

the Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Unauthorized Exploration of the Harry Potter Series(Dallas: BenBella Books, 2006). 119-132.

Chevalier, Noel . “The Liberty Tree and the Whomping Willow: Political Justice, Magical Science, and Harry

Potter ”.The Lion and the Unicorn 29.3 (Sept 2005).

Gupta, Suman. “The Question of Class”.Re-Reading Harry Potter. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.

121-126.

Hall, Susan. “Harry Potter and the Rule of Law: The Central Weakness of Legal Concepts in the Wizard

World”.Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays.Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 147-162.

Park, Julia. “Class and Socioeconomic Identity in Harry Potter’s England”.Reading Harry Potter: Critical

Essays.Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 179-190.

Prinzi, Travis. “Of Fountains, Fabians, and Freedoms: Dumbledore’s Deconstruction of the Wizarding

World”.Harry Potter and Imagination: The Way between Two Worlds. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2009.221-244.

Prinzi, Travis. “Wizards at War: Harry Potter as Commentary on the War on Terror”. Harry Potter and

Imagination: The Way between Two Worlds. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2009.277-286.

Rauhofer, Judith. “Defence against the Dark Arts: How the British Response to the Terrorist Threat Is

Parodied in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.International Journal of Liability and Scientific Inquiry 1.1/2 (2007).

Animal Welfare:

Dendle, Peter. “Monsters, Creature, and Pets at Hogwarts: Animal Stewardship in the World of Harry

Potter”.Ed. Elizabeth E. Heilman.Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2009.163-176.

Garver, S. Joel. “On the Care of Magical Creatures: Wizarding and Animal Welfare”. Ravenclaw Academic

Conference.Edinboro, PA: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, October 2012.

Sex & Gender:

Dresang, Eliza T. “Hermione Granger and the Heritage of Gender”. The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter. Ed.

Lana Whited. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002. 211-242.

Gallardo-C., Ximena and C. Jason Smith. “Cinderfella: J.K. Rowling’s Wily Web of Gender”. Reading Harry

Potter: Critical Essays. Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 191-205.

Heilman, Elizabeth E. and Trevor Donaldson. “From Sexist to (sort-of) Feminist: Representations of Gender

in the Harry Potter Series”. Ed. Elizabeth E. Heilman.Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2009. 139-162)

Prinzi, Travis. “The Witching World? Gender in Harry Potter”.Harry Potter and Imagination: The Way

between Two Worlds. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2009.259-276.

Pugh, Tison and David L. Wallace.“Heteronormative Heroism and Queering the School Story in J.K.

Rowling’s Harry Potter Series”. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 31.3 (2006): 260-281.

Schoefer, Christine. “Harry Potter’s Girl Trouble: The World of Everyone’s Favorite Kid Wizard Is a Place

Where Boys Come First”.Salon 30 (October 200).Web.

Whitton, Natash. “’Me! Books! And Cleverness!’: Stereotypical Portrayals in the Harry Potter Series”.

Women Writers. (May 15, 2004). Web.

Zettel, Sarah. “Hermione Granger and the Charge of Sexism”. Ed. Mercedes Lackey. Mapping the World of

the Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Unauthorized Exploration of the Harry Potter Series (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2006). 83-100.

Race:

Anatol, Giselle Liza. “The Fallen Empire: Exploring Ethnic Otherness in the World of Harry Potter”.

Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays.Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 163-178.

Gupta, Suman. “Blood” and “Servants and Slaves”.Re-Reading Harry Potter. New York: Palgrave MacMillan,

2009. 99-120.

Ostry, Elaine. “Accepting Mudbloods: The Ambivalent Social Vision of J.K. Rowling’s Fairy Tales”.

Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays.Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 89-102.

Prinzi, Travis. “How Half-Bloods Become Purebloods: And What That Says about Race in the Wizarding

World”.Harry Potter and Imagination: The Way between Two Worlds. Allentown, PA: Zossima

Press, 2009.

Virtue & Happiness:

Kern, Edmund M. The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices.

Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003.

Schanoes, Veronica L. “Cruel Heroes and Treacherous Texts: Educating the Reader in Moral Complexity and

Critical Reading in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Books”.Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays.Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Paeger, 2003. 131-146.

Sheltrown, Nicholas. “Harry Potter’s World as a Morality Tale of Technology and Media”. Ed. Elizabeth E.

Heilman.Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2009. 47-64.