The Philosophy of the Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know

The Philosophy of the Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know is a book written by Professor Mordicus Egg. Published in 1963, the book examines the Muggle tendency to ignore magical happenings, even with the most flimsy of excuses.

Among the subjects covered within the book is the reasoning behind why Muggles will find it easier to accept they have misheard something when accidentally tuning into a wizarding radio station than accept they have hallucinated seeing a wizarding television programme. It is also pointed out in this work that Muggles in love with wizards generally do not betray their husbands or wives, and Muggles who fall out of love are jeered at by their own community when they assert that their estranged partner is a witch or wizard. The work states that those are reasons why Muggle/wizard marriages have not led to widespread discovery of the hidden magical community.

Behind the scenes

 * The three faces on the book's cover are a variant on the three wise monkeys done with human (presumably Muggle) faces in place of monkeys. As the original three monkeys represent seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil respectively, it can be assumed the faces are meant to symbolize how Muggles neither see, hear of, nor speak of the wizarding world.
 * In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the prop used to represent this book in the Flourish and Blotts sequence erroneously presented the author as Jodie Pritchard. However Jodie could merely have been publishing that version of the book.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
 * Pottermore