Review by Choice Review
The Harry Potter saga has been previously mined for philosophical significance in Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004), edited by David Baggett and Shawn Klein; and in The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (2010), edited by Gregory Bassham. Holland (Hamline Univ.) looks for additional nuggets from the same mother lode, a search only partially successful. The phrase "ontological humility" derives from Heidegger's notion of the givenness of being, which the author sees as comparable to the givenness of magic in the Harry Potter realm. Here is her fuller definition: "Ontological humility ... is humility in the face of the unknowable whatever that is responsible for the fact that we exist, and that also explains how and why we exist." In contrast to humility is the arrogance of Voldemort and his ilk. The book's audience is unclear. The author takes pains to define terms that any student who has taken an introductory philosophy course would already know. But her analysis ranges over difficult thinkers in recent philosophy, such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, and Derrida, as well as postmodernism and contemporary feminist philosophy. Not a book for philosophical beginners, this volume will be of most interest to those studying feminist thought. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students and professionals/practitioners. D. Stewart emeritus, Ohio University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
