From the Platonic Utopia to Solon’s Atlantis (A Review of Plato's Political Thought)

The realization of a justice and virtual government that based on rational and moral principles has always been in the focus of the divine prophets and thinkers. That is why Plato depicts a schematic of an ideal and virtuous society in his collection of works. By stipulating the general framework of such a city, he seeks to lead ancient Greek society from the abyss of destruction and corruption to a rational and moral state. In the present thesis, his political thought is examined as introduced in the dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, as well as in the Treatise on the Republic and the Laws. Plato's central idea in the Timaeus-Critias dialogues is based on the "Story of Atlantis"; So that at the beginning, it seems that he has borrowed his theory of the utopia in the republic from this myth and story. Therefore, in the present paper, we have examined this hypothesis and its validity and reliability. But the conclusion was that this story could have been made by Plato's creative mind, and according to scientific studies by scientists in recent centuries, no objective evidence for the existence of such an island in the past distant has been found, or at least its certainty questioned. However, the power of Plato's intellectual creativity and actual ability to use fiction and literary genres in the field of philosophy is very thought-provoking, and this basically does not diminish the validity of his utopian theory.