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Asymmetric comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9 - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 09 September 2011 01:29PM

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Comment author: Asymmetric 13 November 2011 09:27:12PM *  2 points [-]

Harry has said that Hermione is his moral center. Is she? Should she be?

I have mixed feelings. She's hardly a paragon, and if she's going to continue to develop into her own character instead of a satellite of Harry, Eliezer's going to outline her faults in more detail. We've seen this with Harry. Every time he undergoes a trial, readers learn more and more how fallible he is, and why.

Thoughts?

Comment author: Locke 27 December 2011 05:13:31PM 5 points [-]

Hermione is far from perfect, but she's nonetheless the most traditionally-moral person at Hogwarts. I think Harry is correct not to want to emulate her entirely, yet still respect her enough to ask her advice on morally ambiguous issues.

Comment author: sboo 21 January 2012 01:46:31AM 1 point [-]

""And," her voice said, "if you want to break school rules or something, you can ask me about it, I promise I won't just say no.""

perhaps eliezer's is not outlining but "fixing" her faults. by the end of ch75, hermione seems to have experienced a crisis of faith and become more morally harry.

Comment author: thomblake 10 February 2012 02:20:23AM 0 points [-]

Remember that being a good person, to Eliezer, is not just 'shut up and multiply'. For humans, it also requires having the sort of personality that does not allow you to pass a person in need without helping them. Hermione is such a person, and Harry realizes that he needs that if he doesn't want to stray from the path / become a dark wizard.