Does it matter? on Transfiguration

Selina Skies

June 19, 2023 5:06 AM

Intermediates - Is it ethical? by Selina Skies

“Hello, and welcome or welcome back to Intermediate Transfiguration. We’re going to be starting with a look at one of our overarching issues as we move onto more complex transfigurations. Traditionally, these have involved working on living animals. There have been competing theories over the years about the amounts of pain and destruction caused by Transfiguration, with very few solid answers reached.” In the past, Selina had been a proponent of the theory that allowed her to continue using live class specimens without feeling guilty about it - the one that proposed multiple realities and the shifting of organisms between them. Though, given that those realities could be no more demonstrated than an afterlife could, she had increasingly grown to wonder what the difference was between that and death.

“Today, we are going to consider various angles on the ethical implications of transfigurations. Our collective interpretation as a class may influence some of the units we study.

“The three questions we’re going to consider today are:

What makes an “acceptable” specimen for transfiguration?
What do we know for certain about the effects of using transfiguration on living things?
What ends are we trying to achieve by doing these types of transfiguration, and are they justified?

“To give you some food for thought on each of those questions… People often look to sentience as a mark of acceptability for the first question. But many of you would use lacewings in Potions, or even eat meat. Lacewings breed at a prolific rate and have a short lifespan. Compare that to the damage that could be done by letting a group of amateur magic users practise on trees, which can be decades if not hundreds of years old. Sentience isn’t always the best way to determine ethical use, at least not in simple black and white terms. You will find that very few of these questions have black and white answers, and I will be looking for some level of nuance in what you produce.

As to the second question, you should have read two or three competing theories in the preparation chapters you were assigned for this class. Try explaining them back to your peers, and deciding which one you feel has the most evidence.

Finally, what ends are we trying to achieve? You most likely will never need to turn a raven into a drinking glass, or any of the more ludicrous examples contained in old-fashioned textbooks. However, most of you do want to disappear at will—you want to master the skill that is apparition. How are you to successfully vanish yourself—a large and complex lifeform—if you haven’t built your skills and practised on increasingly complex things? Whilst many of the everyday examples of spells contained within books aren’t useful, they build towards skills and systems which are viewed as essential, useful or desirable in magical society. Try to find two to three more of these examples, and consider whether you feel the ends justify the means,or whether there are other ways of achieving the same level.

“You are encouraged to talk to your peers, and to gain a variety of perspectives on these issues. At some point, we may have class debates where you will be assigned a particular position, as this is useful preparation for your essays. However, today, you will submit your own answers so that I can understand where this class falls on these issues and plan accordingly. Therefore, your final paper should reflect your own views, though they may be influenced by the discussions you engage in.

There are plenty of resources on the back shelf if you want to read theories or other people’s opinions on these issues.

You may begin.”

OOC: This is mostly a discussion class. Feel free to make up anything your character is reading/has read alongside using their gut-reaction thoughts and opinions.
This thread poses several questions/concerns about the subject.

I haven't yet listened to this podcast but it seems like it might be relevant.

Subthreads:

Does it matter? by Nausicaa Scapetello

I think so by Gwendolyn Brockert with Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

13 Selina Skies Intermediates - Is it ethical? 26 1 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

June 27, 2023 8:59 PM

Does it matter? by Nausicaa Scapetello

Nausicaa took her place at the front of the classroom as usual. Transfigurations was, in theory, the most difficult of the classes taught.. at least at this school. In her opinion, that wasn't saying very much, but that was most likely because a school such as this, so far from anything resembling civilization, was not prepared for an intellect such as hers. She had decided to think of it as a positive, while the school was not terribly impressive, it was easy to excel, and as such her academic record going forward would be stellar. There was a simpleton's saying about silver linings and clouds, something to help the dregs of society grinding away, stay content with their lot in life. It was possible it might apply here as well, so long as one didn't loose sight of the cloud and find a way to be rid of it entirely.

As Professor Skies began her class, Nausicaa was initially intrigued with where this class might go, she was naturally disappointed, and in hindsight, should have seen it coming. Their class was not about attempting to test competing theories in order to find out which may be correct. No, for some reason it was on 'ethics'. Her interest immediately diminished as the professor rambled on about irrelevant nonsense. How was this learning about transfigurations? If anything it seemed as though the professor was telling them not to use the discipline for fear of hurting something. If she wanted a glass and there just happened to be a raven nearby, what difference did it make if she used it as such? As far as she was concerned, anything that couldn't stop her from using it as such was an "acceptable" specimen. Why shouldn't it be?

Of course Nausicaa knew none of those thoughts would make the professor happy. She would need to temper them a bit, weaken them. Why, why did she have to come to this miserable excuse of a school? Father's plan, yes she knew. Was it really worth sacrificing her education? Hopefully, because she would need plenty of proper learning time after she graduated from this place. Worst of all though, this was a 'discussion' class. She would need to talk to some of these people and pretend that they were making valid points. Well, at least it might help her write something in this essay that wouldn't make the professor suspicious.

Nausicaa forced herself to turn to one of the people who had, for some reason, thought it appropriate to sit close to her. "What thoughts do you have on these topics? Does any one in particular interest you?"

2 Nausicaa Scapetello Does it matter? 1561 0 5

Gwendolyn Brockert

July 04, 2023 12:15 PM

I think so by Gwendolyn Brockert

Like most of her relatives, Gwendolyn loved Transfiguration. Though to be fair, she generally loved all her classes. Pretty much everything they did was fascinating, and she had no idea how she was going to choose which classes to keep after CATS. Because taking everything at an Advanced level might be a lot and while she enjoyed studying and learning, Gwendolyn understood it was not a good thing to overload herself. Everyone needed leisure time and doing too much was not healthy.

It was still going to be hard to pick. However, she knew that she would keep Transfiguration, she was a Brockert, after all.

And while today’s lesson wasn’t going to be a practical one, it was still going to be interesting. Gwendolyn actually found ethics to be so. Although, it was a thing that could lead her into trouble, because if someone was being…ridiculous, she was not afraid to shut their crap down. Like if someone had extremist views either way. Like if someone either didn’t care about hurting anyone or was like, thinking someone was a bad person if they expressed normal, moderate sane views. Gwendolyn could handle disagreement if the other person was respectful and not…completely idiotic and irrational.

Fortunately, off the top of her head, there was nobody specific that she felt the need to avoid. Of course, it was not as if the Aladren was a Legilimens and knew anyone’s exact view of anything. Actually, she thought being a Legilimens was rather unethical, because people should not be able to read someone’s mind and see their most intimate thoughts. Privacy was important. Gwendolyn actually had a cousin, Nora, who was one and Uncle Evan had become an Occlumens in response, suggesting that others just think boring thoughts around her so she wouldn’t be interested in them.

Professor Skies began the lesson and the fourth year frowned. They may even eat meat? That was a weird way to put something. Like it was somehow unusual to do so or more immoral than using Lacewings in potions. Gwendolyn personally had no issue with either-and most people she knew of ate meat. She knew Lenny Pierce was a vegan but she didn’t know anyone else who was. Although given how the professor had phrased that, maybe she was a vegetarian too.

And was she suggesting that it was immoral to use magic on a tree ? If that was the case, then wouldn’t it also be wrong to make wands-among other things, like furniture and houses-out of them too? None of that made any sense. Wizards needed wood in order to make wands. Plus, trees didn’t have feelings.

Gwendolyn felt similar about things used for potions ingredients. First of all, other plants fell into the same category as the trees-and if you could use plants or animals because they were alive, then you literally could not make a potion, even a vegan one. Secondly, she was pretty sure that sometimes, you had to use animal based ingredients to make a potion work better.

As for the specific example of ravens into drinking glasses, true, Gwendolyn would likely never need to do that.If, in the unlikely event that she was, like lost in the wilderness, and needed a drinking glass, it would make more practical sense to use something more stationary like a rock to transfigure into a drinking glass because a raven would fly away.

However, thankfully, Professor Skies was not telling them that this was bad and wrong to do-which Gwendolyn absolutely would have taken issue with.. Much like with potions ingredients and wand woods, she seemed to imply that transfiguring animals had a distinctly utilitarian purpose of it being a building block to something that they would want to do. Which made perfect sense to her.

Once the professor finished off the lecture and released them to do their assignment, Gwendolyn turned to the person next to her. “Would like to work on this together?”

11 Gwendolyn Brockert I think so 1555 0 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

July 18, 2023 8:40 PM

Who's to say, really? by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Great, a discussion. Lazarus had to admit, the topic did seem pretty interesting, but the idea of just sort of… discussing with his classmates was less so. For one thing, he didn’t really like interacting with others very much. He was trying his best to expand his horizons and at least put in an effort toward making friends, but it was strenuous for him at best. And secondly, big topics like this were a bit difficult for him to navigate with his magical communication book. While he was able to utilize more than his preset common phrases, phrases like “ethical transmutation” that his brain was giving him were a bit trickier to provide, at least in any sort of timeliness as required by a one-on-one conversation.

So instead, Laz produced a quill and some scrap parchment from his bag and began to jot down his thoughts in a very stream of consciousness type of manner. The question of specimen selection was the type of thing he thought of often, actually. Growing up with two magical zookeepers for parents, he had something of a soft spot for animal life and had grown up with a healthy respect for all (non-human) creatures. He’d even gone back and forth on vegetarianism; Mom didn’t eat meat, but given Lazlo’s health scares in his youth, the family as a whole was a bit reluctant to risk his protein consumption.

Another sticking point he explored in his scribbles was the idea of pain. Was it painful in anyway when you turned a snail into a button? Was the snail’s mind even sophisticated enough to feel pain? And even if it couldn't understand or process pain, did that make it okay to do something painful to it? Lazarus didn’t really have the answers, and as he went on writing, he found himself primarily coming up with new questions.

He paused to stretch his wrist, having written a good paragraph or two, and happened to catch the gaze of Gwendolyn Brockert, who asked if he wanted to work together. He hadn't realized how fast he'd started writing, because he'd scribbled down a lot in so very little time. Lazarus looked between Gwendolyn and his paper, hastily scribbled “My Gut Reactions - Lazarus J.F.” at the top, and offered it to her to read. Maybe he could discuss with someone, after all.

12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher Who's to say, really? 1548 0 5