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matheist comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 11 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 17 March 2012 09:41AM

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Comment author: matheist 19 March 2012 06:58:27PM *  4 points [-]

I read this as meaning that Dumbledore's order that Snape stop reading minds is just to mollify Harry. Dumbledore reads students' minds (I argue here that Dumbledore reads the Weasley twins' minds), and hence doesn't actually care whether Snape does the same.

Harry, of course, has no way of checking that Snape is following this order, so it's safe for Dumbledore to cross his fingers under the table, so to speak.

Comment author: loserthree 21 March 2012 12:46:23AM 5 points [-]

Dumbledore never promised to stop reading student's minds. Not int chapter 18 when he said Snape would make that promise or in chapter 20 when he is called on reading HJPEV's mind.

Also, Dumbledore's offered compromise to HJPEV was this:

He will promise to only read minds when the safety of a student requires it.

It is not difficult to argue that the safety of some student, somewhere requires constant readings of the minds of the Weasley twins.