Theme or epilogue?

In this final chapter I return to the vantage-point of the first and assess the dialogue as a whole, knitting together its various concerns and indicating where and why the seams are meant to show. In my opening chapter I approached this task by considering Socrates' and Phaedrus' attention to their physical environment, which inaugurates both halves of the work, and by this means I oriented the reader towards what was to follow. In this chapter I will look back on the ground traversed through the filter of the critique of writing which is the final topic of their conversation. Apart from its connection with the dialogue as a whole, Socrates' devaluation of the written word in relation to the spoken in the closing pages of the dialogue has special relevance for the entire Platonic corpus, because he finds fault with all forms of written discourse, the philosophic included; therefore, apparently, with Plato's dialogues also (see 276bl–277a5). And this passage of the Phaedrus (together with a stretch of the less securely Platonic Seventh Letter, 341b3–345a1) is the major source for Plato's view on the matter.

We recall that Socrates announced his critique of rhetoric as an investigation into the conditions not only of good speaking but also of good writing (259e1–2). His general recommendations for rhetorical reform would apply to both; but with the main argument of his critique complete he broaches the special characteristics of writing as an additional matter (at 274b6). What Socrates says about writing is less clearly an indictment than a warning of potential danger; he stamps its packing-case not ‘radioactive’ but ‘volatile’ – to be handled with care.