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Sunday, July 12, 2020

Mystery is Vital for a Platonic Atlantis

Plato says that the republic of the children of the mind lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world.” To the republic of the children of the mind, Plato gives the name “Atlantis,” which is not modeled after any existing society and represents a new spirit of humanity, a venturing into a higher level of civilization. An Atlantis cannot be founded in a known continent which is filled with the madding crowd of humanity—it needs a new place, which, as Plato puts it, lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world.” Atlantis implies a place that is surrounded in mystery.

1 comment:

Wirkman Virkkala said...

Lovely thought, the children of the mind. But it is worth mentioning that the date given by Plato for the sinking of Atlantis corresponds to the end of the Younger Dryas, when sea levels rose about 400 feet.