"Critias" utilize a few select men to theorize on the natural world and to tell a story of the lost city of Atlantis. This dialogue tells the tale of the powerful island kingdom of Atlantis. Though the people are the offspring of a god, their human nature begins to corrupt them. They attempt to conquer Athens but fail because of the Athenians' well-ordered society. Just as Zeus begins to decree their punishment, however, the incomplete work comes to an end. Though not extant, this pair of dialogues is clearly the writing of a brilliant mind posing and considering creative ideas.

Critias, one of Plato's late dialogues, contains the story of the mighty island kingdom Atlantis and its attempt to conquer Athens, which failed due to the ordered society of the Athenians. Critias is the second of a projected trilogy of dialogues, preceded by Timaeus and followed by Hermocrates. The latter was possibly never written and Critias was left incomplete. Because of their resemblance (e.g. in terms of persons appearing), modern classicists occasionally combine both Timaeus and Critias as Timaeus-Critias.

Plato was a philosopher, as well as mathematician, in Classical Greece. He is considered an essential figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition, and he founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his teacher Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."