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Vaniver comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 110 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: Gondolinian 24 February 2015 08:01PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 24 February 2015 08:30:35PM 1 point [-]

In the latter case he must have valued Harry instrumentally more than himself, as he said before that he would not be deterred by hostages. (Though he could, of course, have been bluffing.) That seems somewhat odd though, given that Harry is currently unarmed and at the mercy of Voldemort.

Remember that Dumbledore is truly willing to sacrifice himself, and he has access to a number of prophecies. He likely knows that this is the right call, both by his altruistic morality and whether or not it will lead to Voldemort's defeat.

(He also probably correctly thinks it is more likely that Harry can rescue him from being frozen than he could rescue Harry.)

Comment author: CellBioGuy 25 February 2015 12:14:33AM 8 points [-]

Remember that Dumbledore is truly willing to sacrifice himself, and he has access to a number of prophecies.

In particular he knows that either Harry or Voldie must win - Dumbledore cannot destroy BOTH. He KNOWS that it can't go down that way.

Comment author: Gondolinian 24 February 2015 08:42:19PM 2 points [-]

(He also probably correctly thinks it is more likely that Harry can rescue him from being frozen than he could rescue Harry.)

As long as Quirrellmort doesn't kill Harry as soon as he gets the stone, which seems like a rather salient possibility. Assuming Dumbledore was acting rationally, we can take this as evidence that Dumbledore knew there was a reason why Quirrellmort would want to keep Harry alive, though it's also likely that Dumbledore was just being impulsively selfless in sacrificing himself.

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