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It was quite a nice evening, I must say. I thought I'd drop in for a quarter hour or so, just to show support as a Prefect, you know, but the conversation drew me in, and I ended up staying for almost an hour and a half.
We started out talking about the night sky, of course. As all of you who've been doing obervations know, Venus is about to reach a point of exceptional brilliancy, to the point that (as the moon wanes) Venus can almost cast a shadow by itself. It'll reach its brightest point on the 24th. The usually elusive Mercury can be spotted at twilight, too. Professor Sinistra mentioned in passing that this year marks the 450th anniversary of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). This led to a lively discussion of the different ways that wizards and muggles have understood science through the years. Well, Darius Warrington argued that muggles do not have the brain capacity to grasp science at all, but although some students were quieter in the debate than others, it seemed to me that this viewpoint was in the minority.
From there the conversation turned more general, to theories of knowledge. How do we know what we know? Some argued that knowledge must be based on authority (I noticed that it was primarily purebloods who maintained this view, interestingly enough), while others insisted it must be based upon information gathered through one's own senses, and through the reshaping of hypotheses through experimentation.
Eventually, the conversation broke down into two or three smaller groups, ranging widely in topic from the professional Quidditch season to students' plans for the Easter holidays. Everyone wonders whether the quarantine will force us to remain at Hogwarts, if an answer to the epidemic isn't found by then.
Students from all four houses came and went through the hours of the evening, mostly younger ones, although a few seventh years did show up, too. Professor Sinistra offered a lovely selection of teas--I was quite taken with the ginger-raspberry one, myself--and some shortbread and biscuits that the house elves provided.
Thanks again, Professor, for a very interesting evening. I hope the younger students enjoyed it as much as I did.
We started out talking about the night sky, of course. As all of you who've been doing obervations know, Venus is about to reach a point of exceptional brilliancy, to the point that (as the moon wanes) Venus can almost cast a shadow by itself. It'll reach its brightest point on the 24th. The usually elusive Mercury can be spotted at twilight, too. Professor Sinistra mentioned in passing that this year marks the 450th anniversary of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). This led to a lively discussion of the different ways that wizards and muggles have understood science through the years. Well, Darius Warrington argued that muggles do not have the brain capacity to grasp science at all, but although some students were quieter in the debate than others, it seemed to me that this viewpoint was in the minority.
From there the conversation turned more general, to theories of knowledge. How do we know what we know? Some argued that knowledge must be based on authority (I noticed that it was primarily purebloods who maintained this view, interestingly enough), while others insisted it must be based upon information gathered through one's own senses, and through the reshaping of hypotheses through experimentation.
Eventually, the conversation broke down into two or three smaller groups, ranging widely in topic from the professional Quidditch season to students' plans for the Easter holidays. Everyone wonders whether the quarantine will force us to remain at Hogwarts, if an answer to the epidemic isn't found by then.
Students from all four houses came and went through the hours of the evening, mostly younger ones, although a few seventh years did show up, too. Professor Sinistra offered a lovely selection of teas--I was quite taken with the ginger-raspberry one, myself--and some shortbread and biscuits that the house elves provided.
Thanks again, Professor, for a very interesting evening. I hope the younger students enjoyed it as much as I did.
