The Ultimate Harry Potter: Hogwarts for Muggles, is a fresh and distinctive report on the great ideas in the series. All the authors of these chapters have had the advantage of thinking through their chosen issues, and writing up their conclusions after the entire Potter storyline was complete, and Rowling had even had her say in public about things that never made it into the pages of the official texts. The philosophers and other top Harry Potter experts gathered together here offer new voices and newperspectives on many of the most important ideas that come up in the books--some of which can be genuinely life changing. Reading this book will be like putting on a Philosophical De-Coder Ring. It will show you vital aspects of the deepest story that lies behind these famous stories-- A philosophical exploration of the entire seven-book Harry Potter series Harry Potter has been heralded as one of the most popular book series of all time and the philosophical nature of Harry, Hermione, and Ron's quest to rid the world of its ultimate evil is one of the many things that make this series special. Acknowledgments. Foreword by Tom Morris. Introduction: Harry Potter and the Enchantment of Philosophy. Part One: The Horcrux of the Matter: Destiny, Identity, and the Soul. 1. Scott Sehon: The Soul in Harry Potter. 2. Eric Saidel: Sirius Black: Man or Dog? 3. Jeremy Pierce: Destiny in the Wizarding World. Part Two: The Most Powerful Magic of All. 4. Catherine Jack and David Paul Deavel: Choosing Love: The Redemption of Severus Snape. 5. Gregory Bassham: Love Potion #9¾. 6. Anne Collins Smith: Harry Potter, Radical Feminism, and the Power of Love. Part Three: Potterwatch: Freedom and Politics. 7. Andrew P. Mills: Patriotism, House Loyalty, and the Obligations of Belonging . 8. Beth Admiraal and Regan Lance Reitsma: Dumbledore s Politics. 9. David Lay Williams and Alan J. Kellner: Dumbledore, Plato, and the Lust for Power. Part Four: The Room of Requirement: A Potter Potpourri. 10. Tamar Szabó Gendler: Is Dumbledore Gay? Who s to Say? 11. Gregory Bassham: Choices vs. Abilities: Dumbledore on Self Understanding. 12. S. Joel Garver: The Magic of Personal Transformation. 13. John Granger with Gregory Bassham: Just in Your Head? J. K. Rowling on Separating Reality from Illusion . 14. Amy Kind: A Pensieve for Your Thoughts? Harry Potter and the Magic of Memory. 15. Gregory Bassham: A Hogwarts Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Part Five: Beyond the Veil: Death, Hope, and Meaning. 16. Charles Taliaferro: The Real Secret of the Phoenix: Moral Regeneration through Death. 17. Jonathan L. Walls and Jerry L. Walls: Beyond Godric s Hollow: Life after Death and the Search for Meaning. 18. Michael W. Austin: Why Harry and Socrates Decide to Die: Virtue and the Common Good. Contributors: The Hogwarts (for Muggles) Faculty. The Marauders Index.