Finding the Lost City of Atlantis
Proof that Plato’s Dialogues are both Historical and Allegorical
According to Alfred North Whitehead, philosophy “consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”, and this is particularly interesting in regards to Atlantis. You see, according to academics, who are all the descendants of Plato’s Academy (including his best pupil, Aristotle), Atlantis was nothing more than a fictional island mentioned in an allegory regarding the hubris of nations. Granted, it’s true that in Timaeus and the unfinished Critias, Atlantis does represent an antagonist naval power that besieges “Ancient Athens”, which was the embodiment of the ideal state in The Republic. Nonetheless, Plato repeatedly stated that Atlantis was a real place, and I, for one, believe him. Truth be told, I think Plato lacked the kind of imagination that would have been necessary to create such a fantasy land in such great detail.
The thing is that like the great philosopher Socrates, Atlantis was much more than a mere literary device used by Plato. Ultimately, Socrates was a real person, and Atlantis was a real place, albeit somewhat fictionalized in Timaeus and Critias. This is especially pertinent since Plato is the oldest surviving written source of knowledge regarding the otherwise lost city. This means that archaeological evidence needs to be used to either prove…
