As we have seen in the previous chapters, Plato attempts in a number of dialogues to distinguish philosophy from traditional genres of discourse. Philosophical language, he suggests, is not only new and different: it is superior to all other kinds of discourse. The Phaedrus, however, takes a different tack. For it abandons the notion that traditional genres of poetry and rhetoric are inherently “unphilosophical.” This means that it is at least possible for one or another genre to make a positive contribution to the project of philosophy. The Phaedrus targets a number of generic subtexts, but handles each in a different way: while some genres are subjected to parody, others are granted full semantic autonomy. In the latter cases, Plato disrupts the boundaries that he had previously drawn between “philosophy” and “non-philosophic” discursive practices.