While in most types of fights killing is usually easier and safer than disabling, it is neither ruthless nor practical but simply short-sighted to lose track of why you are fighting.
I never got the impression that Harry’s “Intent To Kill” thing included any tendency whatsoever to forget why he was fighting. The lesson here is completely distinct from being gratuitously stupid.
I never got the impression that Harry’s “Intent To Kill” thing included any tendency whatsoever to forget why he was fighting.
I disagree.
First, Quirrell very clearly asked Harry to think of combat uses for items in the classroom; that his thinking automatically restricted itself to lethal uses shows a serious flaw in his on-the-spot strategic abilities. This particular example is a good one, since his killing ideas quickly became worthless, but had he considered other aspects of combat he would have come up with a lot of much more useful options, such as using desks as barricades.
Secondly, Quirrell’s quiz test is closely followed by two entire chapters devoted to Harry’s highly dangerous tendency to escalate fights beyond the point where he could expect the best reward-to-risk ratio (George Patton once said: “Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning”). Deciding from the start that the enemy must die, without even fleetingly considering if other options may be preferrable, is clearly part of this problem.
I realise, as I write this, that there is a possibility we may be talking about two distinct things. As I read it in the text, by “intent to kill” Quirrell referred to Harry’s reflexive interpretation of any fight as a fight to the death. If you are, instead, using the phrase to refer to the willingness and psychological ability to kill (whereas most regular people would find themselves instinctively aiming their knives away from vital points, and so on), then I have no disagreemen.
Also note that in the lesson “intent to kill” is not presented by Quirrel as purely good thing, nor is Harry called the most capable warrior or the best kid to have your back in the fight but the most dangerous student, an epithet that could well apply to the cadet with the worst trigger discipline. It appears that intent to kill goes along with a lack of squeamishness about violence, and it may be easier to teach Harry about the proper uses of violence than to train Draco to be unaffected by it, but that does not mean that intent to kill is itself a good thing
I realise, as I write this, that there is a possibility we may be talking about two distinct things. As I read it in the text, by “intent to kill” Quirrell referred to Harry’s reflexive interpretation of any fight as a fight to the death. If you are, instead, using the phrase to refer to the willingness and psychological ability to kill (whereas most regular people would find themselves instinctively aiming their knives away from vital points, and so on), then I have no disagreemen.
I’m actually speaking of neither of those things. Instead I speak of the things I allude to in my initial comment. Similar language is used to express related concepts fairly often in books on strategy as well as Eliezer’s document on the virtues of rationality. I have also specifically asserted that I am not referring to the somewhat distinct concept on picking idiotic fights.
I never got the impression that Harry’s “Intent To Kill” thing included any tendency whatsoever to forget why he was fighting. The lesson here is completely distinct from being gratuitously stupid.
I disagree.
First, Quirrell very clearly asked Harry to think of combat uses for items in the classroom; that his thinking automatically restricted itself to lethal uses shows a serious flaw in his on-the-spot strategic abilities. This particular example is a good one, since his killing ideas quickly became worthless, but had he considered other aspects of combat he would have come up with a lot of much more useful options, such as using desks as barricades.
Secondly, Quirrell’s quiz test is closely followed by two entire chapters devoted to Harry’s highly dangerous tendency to escalate fights beyond the point where he could expect the best reward-to-risk ratio (George Patton once said: “Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning”). Deciding from the start that the enemy must die, without even fleetingly considering if other options may be preferrable, is clearly part of this problem.
I realise, as I write this, that there is a possibility we may be talking about two distinct things. As I read it in the text, by “intent to kill” Quirrell referred to Harry’s reflexive interpretation of any fight as a fight to the death. If you are, instead, using the phrase to refer to the willingness and psychological ability to kill (whereas most regular people would find themselves instinctively aiming their knives away from vital points, and so on), then I have no disagreemen.
Also note that in the lesson “intent to kill” is not presented by Quirrel as purely good thing, nor is Harry called the most capable warrior or the best kid to have your back in the fight but the most dangerous student, an epithet that could well apply to the cadet with the worst trigger discipline. It appears that intent to kill goes along with a lack of squeamishness about violence, and it may be easier to teach Harry about the proper uses of violence than to train Draco to be unaffected by it, but that does not mean that intent to kill is itself a good thing
I’m actually speaking of neither of those things. Instead I speak of the things I allude to in my initial comment. Similar language is used to express related concepts fairly often in books on strategy as well as Eliezer’s document on the virtues of rationality. I have also specifically asserted that I am not referring to the somewhat distinct concept on picking idiotic fights.