Courage in the everyday and in extremis: Civilian and combatant virtue in Harry Potter

1. Courage in the everyday and in extremis:Civilian and combatant virtue inHarry Potter Laura Guidry-Grimes, M.A. Georgetown University, Philosophy Ph.D. Candidate Ethics Awareness Week Young Harris College, Spring 2014

2. Aristotle’s Ethics • Human creatures can only achieve eudaimonia (flourishing/happiness) if we have virtues • Happiness as an activity, not a mere mental state • Happiness vs. pleasure • Virtues = excellence = being the best human you can be given your talents and circumstances • Universal virtues due to common humanity 384-322 BCE

3. Aristotle’s Ethics • Virtue: “a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us […] it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions” (NE II.6) • Focus on character • Forming the right habits (ethos ) for the right reasons • Examine particulars of a specific case

4. Aristotle on Courage • “a mean with respect to things that inspire confidence or fear […] and it chooses or endures things because it is noble to do so, or because it is base not to do so” (NE III.7) • “who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and at the right time, and who feels confidence under the corresponding conditions” (NE III.7)

5. Hitting the Mean : Fear Example: How much fear should the virtuous person feel when confronted by a Death Eater? If the person is a well-trained wizard/witch in battle… Mean Mean Excess Excess Deficiency Deficiency If the person is a Squib or Muggle…

6. Aristotle on Courage • Fear • Virtue: balancing of desire for external goal (e.g., victory, glory) against desire to avoid countergoal (e.g., death) (Pears) • Confidence • “an expectation that what brings safety will be close at hand, while what produces fear will not exist or will be far away” (Rhetoric II.5) • Why should the expectation of safety be relevant for courage? • Problem case: Spartans at Thermopylae • Confidence in safety as one type of confidence? • Point of including confidence in courage: facing the fearful situation is (at least potentially) worth the risk from the perspective of the individual

7. Aristotle on Courage • What are the right things to fear? • death in the noblest circumstances • pain and suffering • What is the right motive? • noble to do so/ base not to do so • external goal outweighs aversion to countergoal (Pears) • When is it the right time ? What is the right way? • context-dependent • require moral perception + moral imagination + experiential knowledge

8. Aristotle on Courage vice virtue

9. falling short Aristotle on Courage courage Fe Fm Fd Ce Cm Cd

10. Aristotle on Courage • Moral courage • “willingness to speak out and do that which is right in the face of forces that would lead a person to act in some other way” (Lachman) • Fear of persecution, condemnation, being misunderstood in motive or deed, physical or social harms • Confidencein oneself as a moral actor and in the good achievable (Putnam)

11. Civilian - Combatant Shift • Courage to face the reality of war—when entering war, while fighting in the war, and retrospectively • “war sears memories, it brands the soul with images that can overpower and overwhelm” (Sherman, Untold War) • Fear of being killed AND fear of killing • “The fear of losing one’s soul in war is real, felt over and over again by those who wear a uniform” (Sherman, Stoic Warriors ). • Example: Dumbledore’s concern for Draco’s soul in HBP • Requires confidence in oneself and in the cause for which one sacrificed

12. The Courage of Harry Potter • Thrust into dual civilian/war hero role when killing curse deflects and seemingly destroys Voldemort • By killing Harry’s family, Voldemort ensures that Harry is fully committed to defeating him • Unwavering confidence in the nobility of the cause • Only doubts himself as a moral actor when Voldemort possesses him or enters his mind (OP ) • Greatest fear is not death • Importantly separates Harry from Voldemort • Boggart turns into dementor: “‘That suggests that what you fear most of all is—fear’” (PA 155)

13. The Courage of Harry Potter • Is Harry courageous when he chooses to sacrifice himself to end the war in Hogwarts and to destroy one more piece of Voldemort’s soul? • “Terror washed over him as he lay on the floor, with that funeral drum pounding inside him. […] Yet it did not occur to him now to try to escape, to outrun Voldemort” (DH 692) • Desire of external goal (victory over evil, safety of loved ones) outweighs aversion to countergoal (death) • No expectation that safety is close at hand… • But confident that he and his friends are fighting a just cause

14. The Courage of Neville Longbottom • Stands up to his friends when they sneak out at night and jeopardize Gryffindor’s standing (in SS ) • Some sacrifices are relatively mundane but nonetheless felt costs—loss of something valued (e.g., friendship) • “‘there are all kinds of courage […] It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends’” (SS 306)

15. The Courage of Neville Longbottom • Leadership role in rebellion in Hogwarts after war begins • Motivated by moral indignation at parents’ torture– but never do we see Neville perform an Unforgivable Curse • Is Neville courageous when he defies Voldemort and tries to kill the snake (without knowing why) after Harry’s apparent death? • Death of The Chosen One…no confidence in victory? • Retains confidence in the cause, himself, and his friends – refuses to accept Voldemort’s invitation, calls for support from “Dumbledore’s Army”

16. The Courage of Severus Snape • As double agent, civilian and combatant roles thoroughly blended together • Expresses fear for his soul more than any other fear • Does not want to kill Dumbledore: “‘And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?’” (DH 683) • Tries to save people—even while working for Voldemort—as often as possible • But still has to dirty his hands repeatedly: not stopping death of Charity Burbage, permitting Carrows’ evil in Hogwarts • “‘DON’T […] CALL ME COWARD!’” (HBP 604)

17. The Courage of Severus Snape • Confidence in the nobility of the cause • Motivated by love of Lily, promise to Dumbledore, Voldemort’s betrayal • Though he often lacks confidence in Dumbledore’s methods: “Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter” (DH 687) • Confidence in himself as a moral actor? • Should be shaken after his grievous misperception of what the noble cause really was • But has to be restored for his risk-taking to be worth it (and not merely reckless) • What counts as an appropriate level of confidence for him will be higher than it will be for someone who never suffered the same sort of setback

18. Conclusions • Courage translated from peacetime to wartime • What counts as the right conditions of fear and confidence will depend on • responsibilities and risks as civilian and combatant • aims and methods of war • What would the virtuous person do? • Look to heroes from literature, theatre, culture • Especially important for cultivating virtuous habits, teaching moral imagination, and honing appropriate emotional responses

19. Thank you!

20. References Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. David Ross. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Lachman, Vicki D. “Moral Courage: A Virtue in Need of Development?” MEDSURGNursing 16.2 (April 2007): 131-133. Pears, David. "Courage as a Mean" in Essays on Aristotle's Ethics. Ed. Amelie O. Rorty. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1980.  Putman, Daniel. “The Emotions of Courage.” Journal of Social Philosophy 32.4 (Winter 2001): 463-470.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1998.  ___. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2007.  ___. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2000.  ___. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2005.  ___. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2003.  ___. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1999.  ___. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1997.  Sherman, Nancy. Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.  ___. The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010.