“It can get worse, though, can’t it?” Fred said, “Isn’t that sort of following how people wound up working for Grindlewald?”
“I am talking to you, not to those people. Have you ever come close to doing evil through excess obedience?” the Wolf asked.
“We’ve hardly ever obeyed at all,” George said.
The Wolf waited for the words to sink in.
“But not every act of courage is right,” Fred said, “Just because someone is wiser than us doesn’t seem like a reason to obey them blindly.”
“If one who is wiser than you tells you to do something you think is wrong, what do you conclude?” the Wolf asked patiently.
“That they made a mistake,” George said, as if it were obvious.
“Or?” the wolf said.
There was silence. The Wolf’s eyes bore into the twins. It was clearly prepared to wait until they found the answer or the castle collapsed.
“Or it could… conceivably… mean we’ve made… some kind of mistake,” Fred muttered at last.
“And which seems more likely?”
“Wisdom isn’t everything,” George rallied, “maybe we know something they don’t, or they got careless—”
“Good things to think about,” the Wolf interrupted, “but are you capable of thinking about them?”
“What do you mean?” Fred asked.
“Can you take seriously the idea that you might be wrong? Can you even think of it without my help?”
“We’ll try,” George said.
“There’s more options, though,” Fred though aloud, “We don’t have to decide on our own whether we’re wrong or they are—we could talk to them. Couldn’t we?”
“Sometimes you can,” the Wolf said, “and the benefits are obvious. Can you see the costs?”
“It takes time, that we sometimes don’t have” George said.
“It could give you all away—if you’re trying to sneak past somebody and you start whispering, I mean,” Fred said.
“And it makes extra work for the leader. Overwhelming work if there are many followers,” the Wolf added.
“So it’s another tradeoff,” George said.
“Now you understand. But understanding now and in this place is easy. What is hard is to continue to understand. To make the best choice you can, when all paths may run ill, and one ill fills you with fear but another is only words to you. You have the understanding to make that choice, but do you have the courage?
Unfortunately, the Courage Wolf’s existence proof for “people wiser than you” is nonconstructive: he has failed to give evidence that any particular person is wiser, and thus should be trusted.
How to recognize someone wiser than you is indeed left as an exercise for the reader. And, yes, there will always be uncertainty, but you handle uncertainty in tradeoffs all the time.
Are you seriously claiming the Weasely twins are the wisest characters in HPMoR?
Are you seriously claiming the Weasely twins are the wisest characters in HPMoR?
They already listen to Dumbledore and McGonnagal, they’re already wary of Quirrell, and frankly my actual wisdom rating for Harry (as opposed to raw intelligence that might eventually become wisdom with good training) is quite low.
(You know that the only statements Eliezer himself actually endorses are those made about science and those made by Godric Gryffindor, right?)
“It can get worse, though, can’t it?” Fred said, “Isn’t that sort of following how people wound up working for Grindlewald?”
“I am talking to you, not to those people. Have you ever come close to doing evil through excess obedience?” the Wolf asked.
“We’ve hardly ever obeyed at all,” George said.
The Wolf waited for the words to sink in.
“But not every act of courage is right,” Fred said, “Just because someone is wiser than us doesn’t seem like a reason to obey them blindly.”
“If one who is wiser than you tells you to do something you think is wrong, what do you conclude?” the Wolf asked patiently.
“That they made a mistake,” George said, as if it were obvious.
“Or?” the wolf said.
There was silence. The Wolf’s eyes bore into the twins. It was clearly prepared to wait until they found the answer or the castle collapsed.
“Or it could… conceivably… mean we’ve made… some kind of mistake,” Fred muttered at last.
“And which seems more likely?”
“Wisdom isn’t everything,” George rallied, “maybe we know something they don’t, or they got careless—”
“Good things to think about,” the Wolf interrupted, “but are you capable of thinking about them?”
“What do you mean?” Fred asked.
“Can you take seriously the idea that you might be wrong? Can you even think of it without my help?”
“We’ll try,” George said.
“There’s more options, though,” Fred though aloud, “We don’t have to decide on our own whether we’re wrong or they are—we could talk to them. Couldn’t we?”
“Sometimes you can,” the Wolf said, “and the benefits are obvious. Can you see the costs?”
“It takes time, that we sometimes don’t have” George said.
“It could give you all away—if you’re trying to sneak past somebody and you start whispering, I mean,” Fred said.
“And it makes extra work for the leader. Overwhelming work if there are many followers,” the Wolf added.
“So it’s another tradeoff,” George said.
“Now you understand. But understanding now and in this place is easy. What is hard is to continue to understand. To make the best choice you can, when all paths may run ill, and one ill fills you with fear but another is only words to you. You have the understanding to make that choice, but do you have the courage?
Unfortunately, the Courage Wolf’s existence proof for “people wiser than you” is nonconstructive: he has failed to give evidence that any particular person is wiser, and thus should be trusted.
How to recognize someone wiser than you is indeed left as an exercise for the reader. And, yes, there will always be uncertainty, but you handle uncertainty in tradeoffs all the time.
Are you seriously claiming the Weasely twins are the wisest characters in HPMoR?
They already listen to Dumbledore and McGonnagal, they’re already wary of Quirrell, and frankly my actual wisdom rating for Harry (as opposed to raw intelligence that might eventually become wisdom with good training) is quite low.
(You know that the only statements Eliezer himself actually endorses are those made about science and those made by Godric Gryffindor, right?)