A philosophical exploration of the entire seven-book Harry Potter series Harry Potter has been heralded as one of the most popular book series of all time and the philosophical nature of Harry, Hermione, and Ron's quest to rid the world of its ultimate evil is one of the many things that make this series special. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy covers all seven titles in J.K. Rowling's groundbreaking series and takes fans back to Godric's Hollow to discuss life after death, to consider what moral reasoning drove Harry to choose death, and to debate whether Sirius Black is a man or a dog. With publication timed to coincide with the release of the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1), this book will be the definitive guide for all fans looking to appreciate the series on a deeper level. Covers a range of intriguing topics such as the redemption of Severus Snape, the power of love, and destiny in the wizarding world Gives you a new perspective on Harry Potter characters, plot lines, and themes Makes a perfect companion to the Harry Potter books and movies Packed with interesting ideas and insights, The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy is an ideal companion for anyone interested in unraveling the subtext and exploring the greater issues at work in the story.
I'm currently reading this book for my Harry Potter and Philosophy class. I will be updating my review space with my thoughts on each chapter as I read them.
Chapter 3: Destiny in the Wizarding World- Jeremy Pierce Really interesting chapter that focuses on Trelawney's prophecies and how grandiose and unreliable she is, but also taking into account her only "two" real prophecies. This chapter provides a lot of interesting discussion on free will and determined destiny. I also had a personal revelation as to why Voldemort chose Harry as opposed to Neville that I hadn't really thought about before. Voldemort marks Harry as his equal because he is also a half-blood. Neville is a pure-blood and according to Voldemort's rhetoric (although he would deny it), technically above him in blood status. Neville could never be equal to Voldemort because he is technically already stronger than him because of his pure-blood status. However, Harry was also a half-blood and since he only heard half of the prophecy, he didn't realize that marking one of the two children as his equal would give him more power and eventually lead to his demise. Recommend: Read
Chapter 16: The Real Secret of the Phoenix: Moral Regeneration through Death- Charles Taliaferro This is a really interesting chapter that focuses on the concept of moral regeneration and compares a phoenix to human remorse and rebirth. It's a really well-done chapter, but there are a lot of holes in the argument. However, I enjoyed reading the chapter and I felt like there were a lot of interesting tidbits. Recommend: Read
Chapter 7: Patriotism, House Loyalty, and the Obligations of Belonging -Andrew P. Mills This essay was pretty strong. It made me question a lot of Mills' points, but he also brought up a good amount of points that I heavily agreed with. Overall, pretty solid. Recommend: Read
Chapter 8: Dumbledore's Politics -Beth Admiraal and Regan Lance Reitsma This essay focuses on another essay's claim that Dumbledore is a Libertarian and it was pretty interesting. I like the style of this particular essay because it completely demolishes another and makes counteractive points that made me feel as if I had read the essay it was disputing. Recommend: Read
Chapter 15: A Hogwarts Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly- Gregory Bassham I read this one outside of class for my final essay on the philosophy of education within Hogwarts. This was interesting, but as an education major I disputed with a lot of his points. However, it was a strong essay that I really enjoyed reading and it provided great source material for my essay. Recommend: Read
Read Outside of Class: Chapter 1: The Soul in Harry Potter - Scott Sehon This was a pretty strong essay on the soul and its implications in philosophy as well as in the context of the Harry Potter series. It's not amazing, but it was a relatively strong one. Recommend: Read
Chapter 2: Sirius Black: Man or Dog? - Eric Saidel This essay is boring and I don't feel like I was learning anything. There was little to no philosophy and it was packed with uninteresting information. Saidel does make one interesting point concerning Polyjuice Potion and I would have loved to have seen the essay focus solely on that aspect and interpretation of this topic. Recommend: Skip
Chapter 5: Love Potion No. 9 3/4 - Gregory Bassham This is a simple essay about love potions. It's not a super exciting or informative essay, but it, surprisingly, a lot of fun. I do recommend reading it because it is a lot of fun and love potions are such an interesting portion of the Harry Potter world. Recommend: Read
Chapter 6: Harry Potter, Radical Feminism, and the Power of Love - Anne Collins Smith At first I wasn't too sure about this and where it was going because it was chocked full of examples from essays about HP and feminism that I've never read or heard about before. However, this is one of my favorite essays in this collection. It was a very well-done essay and I definitely loved reading it. Recommend: READ
Chapter 9: Dumbledore, Plato, and the Lust for Power - David Lay Williams and Alan J. Kellner I loved the history lessons incorporated into this essay as a setup for the argument. This essay was quite brilliant because it was simple and true to the series. I enjoyed it a lot. Some may not like it because it isn't offering anything new since we already know the majority of all this information as readers, but it was so much fun. Recommend: Read
Chapter 10: Is Dumbledore Gay? Who's to Say? - Tamar Szabo Gendler This essay doesn't fit in this collection for two reasons. Dumbledore being gay is supported in the HP canon through physical representation. I'm hoping to see that change in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Also there isn't any philosophy here. It feels like an essay that was found online and someone said, "We have to meet a chapter quota, let's throw this one in there." Topic was interesting, but not cohesive to the novel it's in. Recommend: Skip
Chapter 11: Choices vs. Abilities - Gregory Bassham This essay was a lot of fun. For instance, "Aristotle classically defined humans as the 'rational animal'- but, obviously, he had never watched an episode of the Jerry Springer Show." I was laughing so hard at that. It's not an amazing or mindblowing essay, but Bassham's writing style is fun and breezy. It made the topic easy to read and fun to get through. Recommend: Read
Chapter 12: The Magic of Personal Transformation - S. Joel Garver To be honest, this essay is kind of pointless. I thought Garver made one interesting point about Dudley, but there was a lot of bouncing around in the examples and it became very annoying. I'm not a huge fan of this one. Recommend: Skip
Chapter 13: Just in Your Head? - John Granger with Gregory Bassham This was an incredibly thought provoking essay and I really enjoyed the points that this collaborative effort brought to life. The writing was also cheeky and fun, so it made this essay incredibly intelligent and witty. Recommend: Read
Chapter 14: A Pensive for Your Thoughts?: Harry Potter and the Magic of Memory - Amy Kind Again another essay that was a bit of a dud. It could've been interesting, but it felt very underwhelming and I just didn't care for the way the topic was presented. Recommend: Skip
Chapter 17: Beyond Godric's Hollow: Life After Death and the Search for Meaning - Jonathan L. Walls and Jerry L. Walls I think my biggest problem with this particular piece was the writing style. The content is interesting, but nothing original. This collection begins to feel too long after a while and the essays all start to feel like they bring up the exact same points. I would just like more variety in the topics presented. Recommend: Skip
Chapter 18: Why Harry and Socrates Decide to Die: Virtue and the Common Good - Michael W. Austin Again, my biggest problem with this essay is that is feels like a rehash of several different essays that I've already read in this collection. The topic is interesting and I loved the discussion we did for this topic in class (even though we didn't read this particular chapter), but I just felt underwhelmed. Recommend: Read/ Skip (if already well-versed in topic)
This book was one of my favorites from 2011. Absolutely loved it. I'm a super huge Harry Potter fan and a fan of philosophy. So the combination of these two things was absolutely awesome.
The Harry Potter books were my friends when I had none. I read them when I was feeling lonely, depressed, etc. They made me happy. I know that sounds sad, but it's very true. They were a great comfort to me. Harry Potter has a very special place in my heart for that reason. But my love for Harry Potter goes beyond that. I'm also a person who likes to think a lot and contemplate the purpose of people, life, the world, etc. I always felt that Harry Potter was so much more than just a children's series. It delved into so many beautiful themes, but it also covered depressing ones. Like for example, the true meaning of friendship, courage, death, and the corruptness of the government. Themes that will always be relevant in the real world. Some people may not have delved deeper into these themes or might have missed them when reading this series. This book does a good job at helping you take a closer look.
When I went to the midnight release of the last Harry Potter movie it was as if I was saying good bye to a best friend of mine. I felt like a little something in me died that night. I'm not usually emotional, but man it was hard watching the last movie. It didn't hit me until then that it was really over, that there wouldn't be any more Harry Potter movies. That I'm "old" now. That I have been following that series for such a long time. That at this stage in my life, I don't know if I'll ever form the type of friendship that Harry, Hermione, and Ron have.
But it makes me happy to know that type of friendship exists, even if it's just in a fictional world.
Anyway, I went off on a tangent. What made this book awesome was the themes it explored throughout. A few of the essays I wasn't too interested in, but that didn't diminish my love for it. This book really makes you think. Not just about the world of Harry Potter, but about our own world. Like for example, what makes good quality education? Is only a magical education good for these characters? Or do they need to learn something else? Are there pitfalls? This makes you think about own educational system. Is what we learn in our own schools enough? Or do we need more? Do we need more to not only to be successful in this world, but to be able to live a good life? It sort of made me think about IQ and EI. Some people lack in emotional intelligence and suffer in life because of it. They might have a good IQ, but without emotional intelligence life becomes harder. One of my favorite quotes from the book was: "Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny." A quote which is very relevant to education, not just education from school, but education that you get at home. Those two are extremely important in life.
Another essay that I enjoyed a lot was the exploration of loving by actions and loving by emotions. This might sound a little confusing, but basically what they used to explore this was Snape's love for Lily and his hate for Harry. Despite hating Harry, Snape still did the right thing through the series. I don't mean that he treated everyone well because he didn't. What I mean is, that despite his feelings for Harry he still did all these things to protect Harry and to help him. The biggest example was playing a double agent and ultimately getting killed because of it. So the question was did this count as love? Because we know in his heart, Snape felt no love for Harry. So do his actions count? Do they mean something? Do they hold any value? Yes, they do. A person can love through actions if not through emotions. In fact, this type of love is more powerful in a sense because you are going against your heart, against what you actually feel, to do the right thing. Whereas, when you feel love in your heart, it is much easier to be kind to people, to help them out, etc. Your heart guides your actions for the most part. But imagine, if you have to ignore you heart and do the opposite? It's a constant struggle against yourself. Especially if the emotion in your heart is hate. Really love this essay. Especially because it was something that I have always thought about. Like I said before, I'm not very emotional so I know that a lot of the time, I do things because they are right not because I'm feeling love for someone. So I have always doubted myself because of this. I wasn't sure if this counted or if it was worth anything at all. Sometimes I felt that I had to feel love for it to be good, but this essay made me see that it isn't so. If you wait around until you feel love, then you will never act. And if you never act, then nothing will ever happen. No change will occur. You will never, for example, help a friend, if you are waiting to truly love him first.
Before ending this review, let me share some videos that I think are relevant to this book and to the Harry Potter series.
نمیتونم یه ریویوی انتقادی خوب بنویسم؛ امّا بسیار راضی بودم و به همۀ هریپاتر دوستان هم پیشنهادش میکنم. باعثِ گسترشِ دید آدم هنگامِ مطالعه میشه، و جدا از اطّلاعاتِ فلسفیش میتونه به ما راه بهتر زندگی کردن رو از دریچۀ کتابهای هری پاتر نشون بده. و باعث اندیشیدن بیشتر میشه. فقط این که ترجمۀ نهچندان خوب. در جاهایی که مترجم متن اصلی رو فهمیده بود خوب ترجمه کرده بود، امّا ظاهراً در جاهایِ زیادی متن رو نفهمیده بود و ترجمهش شلخته، بیمعنی و حتّی از لحاظِ دستوری غلط بود. اغلاطِ املایی هم بیداد میکرد.
This book was so much fun! It combines two of my favourite things: Harry Potter (duh) and philosophy, concerning topics like fate, souls, reality and, of course, love and death, but also politics and the characteristics of a good school-system.
I was so excited just reading the table of contents and it was a pleasure to read the essays. Anything HP-related makes me happy, but these are well-written and thoughful too. This proves that Potter is not (just) for children. These are grown-up, adult philosophers dissecting the interwoven wisdom and ingenuity of this series.
Obviously, you should have read the HP books before picking this up and be familiar with the main characters and terms, since most references are not further explained.
I especially loved the chapter on metaphysics and the one on time travel and its paradoxons (although that one made my brain hurt a little bit). I also really enjoyed the essay on feminism, despite the fact that I was enraged that some people claim the books to be anti-feminist and full of gender clichés. I feel sorry for the brain cells I lost due to face-palming so much. The book also offers a differentiated examination of Dumbledore that proves he isn’t just great and wise, which I loved because I really don’t like Dumbledore (hate me all you want). There were even some revelations I didn’t realise while reading the HP books. Some things you maybe never even thought about, e.g. the connection between patriotism and house-loyalty and if it really is a virtuous thing to „fight“ for your Hogwarts house.
I believe that any Potterhead will love this and, even though it’s helpful to be interested in philosophy, it’s by no means a precondition to understand this book.
Upon reading The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy:Hogwarts for Muggles,I have to question whether I actually read the books. Maybe I was too busy comparing the books to the movies. (I started reading and finished the series between the theatrical release of The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows: Part One) Maybe I was too busy (between family and work) to truly appreciate the story before me. Nonetheless, I missed sooo many of the underlying themes and concepts that are apparently embedded within J.K.'s epic tale. According to the editor, Gregory Bassham, Harry Potter speaks to:
Love versus obsession. Elitism versus equality. Redemption and remorse. Feminism. Homosexuality. The afterlife.
I am sure that I am leaving something out, but you get the point.
Overall, I found that The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy is a great companion read for the HP series. I truly cannot wait to re-read all seven books with the information I gained from this book as my foundation. My one complaint is that I found a few of the selected essays to be extremely repetitive. All in all, I give Bassham kudos for clearly demonstrating how the selected themes evolve throughout the entire series. There is no Harry Potter book excluded from the conversation.
I think having some experience with philosophy will make this an easier read. The essays on love, patriotism and education were most interesting for me. There were many essays that didn't capture my attention and a couple that frustrated me. I wish less of these essays focused solely on HP and the Deathly Hallows and more on events throughout the series. Also the essays on death were very repetitive as they all focus on the scene between Harry and Dumbledore in King's Cross. Overall, this collection gave me new thoughts about Harry Potter, which is what it set out to do.
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Harry Potter og filosofien – Hogwarts for mugglere af William Irwin & Gregory Bassham (red.) er et must read til alle Harry Potter-nørder og fans. Det var i sandhed en fornøjelse at læse denne bog, for den er detaljeret, varieret hvad angår emner og fokuspunkter, samtidig med at det er en underholdende læsning og hverken for svært eller teoretisk. Jeg vil dog sige, at man klart får mest ud af den detaljerede kedel, hvis man har læst alle Harry Potter-bøgerne. Der er nemlig også spoilers undervejs, fordi nogle emner udpensles og diskuteres.
Der bruges universelle emner, så som død vs. liv, kærlighed, magi og mange filosofiske teorier, som puttes ned over læsningen, men uden at det bliver for langhåret. Jeg er meget imponeret over, hvor spændende læsning det var. Udover at man forundres og underholdes hele vejen igennem, så er der så mange detaljer og det er research i seriøs klasse. Denne bog fik mig til at tænke og til at reflektere over et værk, som jeg kender så godt, men som jeg lige pludselig tvinges til at se med nye øjne – men kun positivt.
Bogen er opdelt i forskellige kapitler, hvor mange emner diskuteres og udpensles. Man kan springe i dem og læse dem fragmenter, eller man kan starte fra ende til anden. Jeg synes, at det fungerer rigtig fint. Det er sat op, så det ikke er tungt, både visuelt og ift. tekstens fylde og indhold. Der er desuden fine illustrationer i starten af hvert kapitel, som giver det en ekstra særlig Harry Potter-vibe, som minder om den første udgivelse i 1997.
De forskellige forskere og akademikere, som har skrevet kapitler til denne bog, har gjort det med en seriøsitet og en varme, som viser passionen for denne fantastiske og magiske verden. Jeg er glad for, at jeg læste med. Er du Harry Potter-fan, så se du at komme i gang!
i actually enjoyed this quite a bit - its been a few years since i've read the HP books, but i really enjoyed the philosophy courses i took in college, so seeing how different theories meld and were used to explain was interesting. The chapter about dumbledore being gay and its existance in reality was probably the most intriguing
Virkelig interessant læsning. Ikke alle essays var lige spændende eller velargumenterede, men alt i alt er jeg fan. Hvordan kan jeg andet når det drejer dig om HP?
Kan især anbefale kap. 6 "Harry Potter, radikal feminisme og kærlighedens magt" hvor Anne Collins Smith inddrager interessante pointer fra både dem, der opfatter serien som sexistisk, og dem, der ser den som progressiv. Hun argumenterer for, at den ud fra et liberalfeministisk synspunkt måske har nogle kritikpunkter, men at det er den radikale feminismes verdensbillede, der virkelig træder frem i HP, da det er gennem egenskaber, der traditionelt er blevet set som feminine, såsom kærlighed og medfølelse, at det onde overvindes.
Der afslørede jeg lige hele pointen, men det er altså et virkelig godt essay, så værsågod at læs det. Og resten af bogen.
The Ultimate Harry Potter Philosphy is a collection of essays that cover a wide range of topics involced in the Harry Potter series. A lot of the material has to do with the last three books, because they have the deepest rooted messages, but there are references to all books in the series. There were a lot of interesting viewpoints that I hadn't really considered. When I read (and adored) the series, I enjoyed it for the amazing plot and characters. I never really looked deeper at the underlying philosophical questions and statements that the book made. So this was an interesting read. I got a little bit bogged down in some parts by all of the philosophy-lingo, so if you're not into that, then, for obvious reasons, you probably shouldn't read this book. But I liked it :) Alsoooo, I kind of love that the author of one of the essays compared Lilly, Dumbledore and Harry to Martin Luther King Jr, Ghandi, Jesus and Socrates, because they were willing to die out of love for others and for their strong sense of morality.
I read this right after finishing Harry Potter and the Tales of Beedle the Bard, having loved all of these very much.
It was funny to discover this nice compendium and go through it as well. I think it is meant to be a companion to Philosophy classes, for secondary school / high-school kids. It explains major philosophical concepts and ideas through examples from the Harry Potter universe.
If its aim is to make philosophy more palatable to young people, I think it's pretty good at it. I mean, how can one not love reading about this, as long as it makes fine points about the motivations, meanings and depths of the beloved HP characters? Assuming the kids in question are indeed fans, of course.
That being said, it is also a bit simplistic from time to time, but I still enjoyed it also as a reference to the things which impressed me most in the books. Reading about Snape's sacrifice, Dumbledore's attitude to power, Harry's capacity to love and build a community around him and so on, is pretty touching for someone who just finished the books and loved them :).
Way too much analytical thinking of a fictional book. Reminds me of talking to those friends in college who always felt the need to show off everything they were learning by forcing the information into otherwise casual conversations.
Earlier this month, I went on a trip to London and it was mostly Harry Potter related. So I chose something on the same topic to read on the plane: "The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy".
I can't even tell if this books is more about Harry Potter or about philosophy. It has lots of examples with citations from Harry Potter books. But also sometimes it goes deep into philosophical theories and presents the views of various well-known philosophers. Quite a large part of this book might have to be rewritten if "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is taken into account.
The best description of this book could be: adults reading children's books too seriously.
Out of the whole bunch, there are maybe one or two essays that have any depth or interesting concepts to explore. The majority of the essays are exploring major philosophical concepts through Harry Potter–these are the ones I struggled to gain value out of because it seems like the essays overlap in major ways and the volume could have been edited better.
در اصل ۴/۵ ستاره کتاب به بررسی مفاهیم فلسفی داستان، از زوایای مختلف میپردازه. کتاب مفیدیه. هم دیدگاه جدیدی بهم داد و هم دیدگاه قبلیم رو نظم و سامان بخشید. ولی انگار دوست داشتم بیشتر و جزئیتر باشه. البته شاید هم این ویژگی داستان های رولینگه که همیشه جا برای بحث دارند. ترجمهی خانم مریم آرین، بسیار روان و خوب بود. حتی مطالب گاها سنگین خوب ترجمه شده بودند.
For both being a Potterhead and a philosophy enthusiasts reading this book was a delight .....at first or maybe sometimes; then there were times when i wondered why the writers felt the urge to treat every character and every deeds in the books as a political or moral statement? Was it really necessary? For me HP series were always about life and life has been a combination of politics , philosophy , morals and more so why do i feel like this? Probably because i naively prefer the silent way all of those subjects are embedded in the stories without you actually realizing. To me that is the magic.
This book only works because it takes itself very seriously. It discusses real philosophical issues (feminism, free will, reality, educational theory, and greater good vs common good) through the lens of Harry Potter.
Each chapter is written by a different person, so there is some repetition of themes and sources (a lot of Socrates "The Republic," a lot of focus on 3 or so conversations between Dumbledore and Harry), but generally the chapters are fairly different.
There was a chapter on the pensieve, but it didn't address what I feel like are the most problematic aspects of its use: Dumbledore describes taking things out of his mind when it gets too cluttered. Additionally, Snape takes memories out of his mind so that they are not there for Harry to accidentally see. But, if I take a memory out of my brain, I wouldn't know that information anymore. The moment I take it out of my mind, I wouldn't remember what I had taken out.
However, Dumbledore does this to examine memories from a different angle, and therefore knows what he's getting into when he sticks his face in the pensieve to relive something, but if it was gone from his mind, he would be seeing it for the first time. Also, Snape is really upset when Harry sees his memories that he has removed from his mind and placed in the pensieve... so he still remembers those memories, they are not wholly gone from his mind.
Therefore, we can assume that when they remove a memory from their mind, they must be removing a copy of the memory, because they still remember it, but how would this declutter your mind or serve to hide memories from prying eyes?!?
Me parece tremendo lo que tardé con este libro :P pero en mi defensa, es un libro que contiene filosofía y por eso me tomé mi tiempo (?).
Es un libro excelente que analiza a nivel filosófico, mediante los pensamientos de los autores y de filósofos antiguos (y no tan) distintas temáticas cubiertas en los libros de Potter. Creo que es un libro que cualquier Potterhead puede tranquilamente disfrutar.
I’ve been interested in both philosophy and Harry Potter for a while, so finding this at the thrift store was a giant score for me. I love to really dive deep into my interests, and this book helped me take my wizarding world thoughts to a new level. Now I think I’m ready to start the series again for my sixth go around!
This book will be desirable to those specifically with an interest in philosophy and ethics with sprinklings of Harry Potter, which I do not have. I often find those subjects insufferably pedantic, but hats off to those of you who enjoy it. I’ll get my ethics from The Good Place.
4.5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟✨ —————————— Did this Hufflepuff enjoy every essay in this compilation? No. Did this Hufflepuff enjoy the merge of philosophical scholastic works and my favourite book series? Absolutely 😍🤓
This book is a collection of essays written by different authors. I liked every essay, but I enjoyed some essays more than others in terms of content and writing style. Overall this book is very interesting, although somewhat repetitive towards the end.
This was disappointing. Only a few essays I'm here I thought were well written and thought provoking. And there were several that were absolute garbage and you can tell they only watched the movies and never read the books