Atlantis existed.

Introduction My opponent once again presents an unorganized argument, but an understanding of the structure of his last argument will facilitate my rebuttal. His arguments and rebuttals can be enumerated as follows: (1) the story of Atlantis was not passed to Plato, (2) a continuation of the philosophical tone argument, (3) Strabo and Aristotle dismissed the idea of Atlantis, (4) error in the Atlantean-Minoan correlation theory, and (5) various other statements concerning the previous round. I will once again rebut each. Story passage My opponent states “i still am clueless upon the evidence of showing that the tales of Atlantis were handed down through his generation before his age. ” Besides my now repetitive statement that Plato blatantly cites his source of information before relaying the story, the Greek historian Plutarch writes of Solon in his biographical work The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, “His first voyage was for Egypt, and he lived, as he himself says, ‘Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus' shore,’ and spent some time in study with Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis the Saite, the most learned of all the priests; from whom, as Plato says, getting knowledge of the Atlantic story, he put it into a poem, and proposed to bring it to the knowledge of the Greeks. ” [1] Additionally, historians agree that the story’s passage is historically verifiable: “Many other academics have researched the veracity of Plato’s detailed account and confirmed that Solon, Dropides and the two Critias lived when described, so the transmission of information is possible. There is ample additional evidence that authenticates Plato’s sources. Clement of Alexandria […] reported that Solon, while he was in Egypt, spoke with Psonchis at Sais, as well as Psenophilis at Heliopolis. ” [2] Philosophy It seems that my opponent still rejects the notion that Plato sincerely believed in the historicity of Atlantis. My opponent states, “Plato's purpose was not to pass on stories, but instead to create stories to teach moral lessons to others. ” This is simply untrue within the context of the Atlantis story. Plato sincerely believed Solon’s account: “Plato was adamant the story was absolutely true,” [3] as he “believed that the story of Atlantis is about something that actually happened,” and had Critias emphasize twice that the story is accurate. [4] That is not to say Solon or Plato did not exaggerate anything, as the noted Greek historian Herodotus did, [5] especially when teaching a moral lesson. Once again, Plato was speaking with a historical tone, not an allegorical tone. He provided a reference for the story as a way to substantiate its historical authenticitiy. This argument simply does not stand when faced with fact. Strabo and Aristotle This argument is completely erroneous: my opponent claims, “according to the writings of the historian Strabo, Plato's student Aristotle remarked that Atlantis was simply created by Plato to illustrate a point. ” Strabo, the noted Greek geographer my opponent is referencing, actually believed in Atlantis. In his work Geography, Strabo states, “He did well, too, in citing the opinion of Plato, that the tradition concerning the Island of Atlantis might be received as something more than a mere fiction, it having been related by Solon on the authority of the Egyptian priests, that this island, almost as large as a continent, was formerly in existence, although now it had disappeared. ” [6] This is Strabo’s only mentioning of Atlantis. As for Aristotle, the quote my opponent is referring to, where Aristotle supposedly remarks that Plato invented the legend, is actually a “conflation” of multiple passages in Strabo’s work, and does not even mention Atlantis. [7] Aristotle’s true opinion on Atlantis is unknown and indeterminate. This argument is completely negated, as Strabo supports my position and Aritotle supports neither. Error I already addressed this particular argument in my opening case. My opponent states, “If the fall of the Minoans is really the story of Atlantis then how did he get the location wrong? ” and later, “simply stating if the time and location are wrong it is highly probable Plato was not citing Atlantis historically. ” Before I begin, I would like to once again show how the fact that Plato even gave a specific size, date, and other details, should negate the philosophical tone point even further. Plato was clearly discussing Atlantis historically and not allegorically. As I already mentioned, Greek historians exaggerated everything. For instance, the most famous Greek historian, Herodotus, exaggerated the reigns of the kings of Media, [4] increased the perimeter of Babylonian walls from 17 to 56 miles, [8] and multiplied the number of warships in a Greek fleet from 400 to 7200. [9] Plato himself exaggerated casualties in a Persian battle [10] and statistics of Athenian democracy. [11] Because of the obvious precedent Greek historians set in relaying history, it is probable that Plato would do the same in communicating the history of the Minoans: placing Crete in a distant era and sea, increasing its size and wealth, and romanticizing its destruction as total obliteration, when in fact Crete was a somewhat ancient and modest island just south of Greece, whose Minoan civilization was destroyed by a volcano-caused tsunami. Once again, we are discussing the civilization Plato was referring to, so taking Plato’s exaggerated historical statistics as truth is somewhat dishonest. Plato was referring to the Minoans, but exaggerated its qualities to embellish his story. Athens and Thera My opponent states finally, “[…] when I mentioned Athens I needed to include that if Atlantis had ever existed it might have been Athens also I didn't propose it to be a main idea and shouldn't be counted against me. ” In short, he dropped the Athens point, as well as the Theran point. Take this as whatever you wish, there is nothing for me to rebut if the argument is not continued. References 1. Plutarch. The Lives of the Noble Grcians and Romans. “Solon. ” 2. Andrews, Shirley. Atlantis. p. 247. 3. Alford, Alan. The Atlantis Secret. 4. Boston University. Arion, volume 5. p. 135. 5. Royal Asiatic Society. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume 17. p. 50. 6. Strabo. Geography. Str. 2.3.6. 7. Colavito, Jason. “Strabo and Aristotle on Atlantis: What Alternative Historians Don't Know. ” Accessed 5 July 2012. 8. Miller, Steven. The New American Commentary. p. 140. 9. Van Antwerp Fine, John. The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History. pp. 303 – 304 10. Plato. The Menexenus of Plato. p. 265. 11. Kiss, Artur. Marxism and Democracy. p. 19.