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Personally, I've always found the writings of Plato to be incredibly boring. All intellect, no passion.
What I've found is that it is much more common for passion to lead us to error than using our intellect.
Passion is part of what we are, as is intellect. On a personal level, some of the errors that passion leads us into are some of the most interesting parts of our lives. Of course, some of those errors can have terrible consequences.
It's not really an either/or proposition. Thank God.
Intellect without passion is cold, sterile, and boring, Kind of like Plato.
Plato's cave allegory is useful.
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? A condemndation of scholasticism.
Actually, it's an ancient riddle of Law. When I needed it, it proved to be very useful.
And if you are inclined to elaborate I'd be interested to read about it - always happy to learn.
I learned the riddle as part of the same oral tradition where I heard a much better cave story.
The question is only part of the riddle, and the answer to the question is not the solution to the riddle.
Here is the riddle. "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin. I say the answer of faith is 50. Use the Law to prove me wrong."
That's actually a Buddhist practice, diuretic.
Prove angels exist.
If you can do that then prove the dimensions of an angel.
Then describe the dimensions of the head of a pin.
Then compare the dimensions of a single angel to the dimensions of the head of a pin.
Then calculate how many angels could dance (we won't worry about distance between each angel, just imagine them standing shoulder to shoulder - assuming they have shoulders as part of their form).
All ultimately useless though because you can't prove angels exist. Your article of faith is subjective and not objective and not measurable or observable so we can kick it out.
<----- not an angel, just a smilie
Okay, I know that's not right but it was fun thinking about it.
For your effort: It is a riddle of Law. The answer of Law to any question is the truth of what you know. Not what you think, not what you believe.
All men know the answer of truth to the question, and it is the same answer for all men. I don't know.
But as I said, the answer to the question is not the solution to the riddle.
Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.