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TobyBartels comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 3 - Less Wrong
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I think that Harry is too dismissive of ‘souls’. He didn't think that magic existed, but it did, and if the people who deal with magic also claim to deal with souls, then there might be something to that. The idea that every human has a soul that goes to an afterlife may be silly (and even Wizards don't act as if they really believe that), but when talking about ghosts, Horcruxes, or the Dementor's Kiss, there might be something real that Wizards mean by ‘soul’, and Harry should investigate that possibility.
If wizards has some type of magically generated "soul", this would be grounds to treat non-wizards as a soul-less subclass. This doesn't seem to be the direction MOR is going.
Only assuming that this magically generated "soul" has functions or qualities that affect a being's moral worth. It's easy to assume it does because of the usual connotations of "soul", but if this sort of soul (whatever it does) is something that Muggles are able to do without, then we can't jump to that conclusion.
From Harry's perspective, it would more be an explanation of why Wizards treat Muggles as a subhuman class than an argument to actually so treat them. After all, Harry cared about people (including, by default, Muggles) before he learnt about souls (or other forms of magic) at all, and what Wizards call ‘soul’ may end up having very little to do with what Muggles call ‘soul’. (All of this predicated on the assumption that Wizards actually mean something by that word, which Harry is so far not crediting, since Muggles don't.)
Also, it may yet be true that everybody (even Muggles) has a soul, although it would probably be simpler if only Wizards do.