'The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy'

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

This is where college finally pays off. . .

Another interesting parallel is the use of the debate to find the truth-Socrates used his Elenchus to draw somebody into an argument and turn them from sure of themselves and their views to confusion and utmost skepticism. Only once you've opened your mind to the fact that you can be wrong, can you truly understand something. In that regard, the Council of Elrond went over the various arguments, then ultimately decided what must be done once the other arguments were proven to be invalid. Of course, this human factors of Boromir, and other influences which would be a bit sketchy later couldn't have been taken into account as far as the debate went.