I came across this collection of essays in the bargain book section of Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and since I can't re-read any books as part of this challenge, I decided to pick up Harry Potter and Philosophy in order to gear myself up for the release of HP7 Part 1 next month.The only ethics/philosophy class I ever took in college was regarding ethics in journalism, so my knowledge on the subject was somewhat sparse. But the authors of the essays in this collection apply their passion for philosophy to their passion of Harry Potter. It's enlightening and interesting to see these academic interpretations of the themes within my favorites books. Like Hogwarts, the book is divided into four parts, with essays that touch upon the key values of the four houses: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor.
These essays uncover the deeper meanings within Harry's adventures, as well as the relationships within the first five books (it was published before the completion of the last two novels.) Although I've loved reading every book in this challenge, Harry Potter and Philosophy took me back to the critical reading and thinking I've been lacking since college. Learning about Aristotilean ethics, reading observations on feminism, racial discrimination and morality or just discovering what dementors have to do with happiness in reality, were all scholarly treats found in this collection to satisfy any Potter buff.
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