Magical Feat – La Salle Philosophy Professor’s Course on
Harry Potter Manages to be Difficult, Challenging but Still Enjoyable for Students

When Harry Potter was 10 years and 364 days old, he was unhappy child, an orphan living with cruel relatives. The next day, when he turned 11, he learned he was a wizard with magical powers. But was he still Harry Potter, the person he was when he didn’t know his real identity on the day before his 11th birthday?

Welcome to La Salle University’s Philosophy course 276, Harry Potter & Philosophy: Wizarding & Wisdom. The textbook for the class is Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts.

Students quickly learned the class would be hard. Prerequisite philosophy courses were required. Each week would have two to four assigned readings, which would be the basis for homework assignments. There would be in-class debates, a five-page-paper and an eight-page paper. Then something magical happened: three students disappeared.

“They probably thought this was going to be an easy course,” suggested S. Joel Garver, an assistant professor of Philosophy at La Salle who conceived and teaches the class. But it won’t be all work, he said. “I hope to bring the fun of the books into philosophy,” he noted. More than 25 students are in the class, and range in majors from biology to history to accounting to speech-language-hearing science.

David Macknet, a sophomore biology major from Haddonfield, N.J., is a Harry Potter fan and signed up for the course because he thought it sounded interesting. “The class is much harder than I expected it to be because the readings are very difficult,” he said. “I didn’t realize how much philosophy was actually behind all the books.”

Jacob Repash, a senior from Bethlehem, Pa., figured the course would not be easy: “I assumed that the only way a HP course could be approved is if the professor presented a syllabus that is challenging and thorough,” he said.

“Overall, the class is a lot of fun,” said Repash. “I like to let my imagination run, so as I walk to class in Wister Hall I imagine that I am entering Hogwarts -- there's a slight resemblance between the two buildings, which are old and cathedral-like. Also, I always whistle the Harry Potter theme song as I'm walking in, which really gets me excited for more Harry Potter.”

Professor Garver and his wife are avid Potter fans and took turns reading their copy of the final book. As a philosophy scholar, he noticed that several principles and morals found in J. K. Rowlings’ novels had philosophical underpinnings. He thought the books and their related culture would make for a good, interesting course.

He used the first classes to lay the groundwork for the philosophical questions to come: one lecture dealt with the nature of identity, another with the concept of time (Potter and friends travel back and forth between time in one of the books).
Garver also talked about other “fantasy” fiction and literature, such as J.R. Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” and Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz,” and how certain philosophical questions existed in those works (was the “tin man” really a “man” even though most of his body was replaced by metal parts, asked Garver).

The course is taught Wednesday evenings, from 6:15 to 8:55 p.m. Garver gives his students a break, but that’s when he plays music from bands inspired by the Potter world (such as Draco and the Malfoys and the Moaning Myrtles), or videos people have made; one was a Potter “rap” song with people dressed as characters from the novels. Many students stay in their seats, stretch, and listen or watch the accompanying media.

The school in the Potter novels, Hogwarts, is divided into four houses:  Hufflepuff, Griffindor, Slytherin and Ravenclaw. For the debates in his class, Garver divided the students into four groups -- Hufflepuff, Griffindor, Slytherin and Ravenclaw. During one of the first classes there was debate between two “houses” who analyzed whether it was ethical to ever use “an unforgivable curse.” 

In Potter’s world, there are three wizard curses so heinous that they cannot be forgiven: murdering someone, torturing someone, or making a person act according to someone else’s will. One student brought up the nature of forgiveness: that without it there could not be free will. Another student argued that for emergencies or life-threatening situations the curses could be used, a case in which the ends justified the means. 

“The debate was really enjoyable to prepare for, and I love talking about Harry Potter on a scholarly level,” said Megan McGee, a senior American Studies major from Enola, Pa. “The readings are more intense than I expected, but the class discussion is really engaging, and Dr. Garver makes everything easy to understand, which is good since some of these philosophic discussions are hard to swallow.”  She added that, “I'm having tons of fun in this class.”

And it’s not only La Salle students who are interested in Potter. Gina Merlino is a junior philosophy major at another university, and was encouraged to take a course at an area college. “When I saw this I jumped at the chance,” she said. “I love Harry Potter. The course is a bit harder than I expected, but still interesting.”