ABSTRACT
In the final pages of the Phaedrus (274b-278e) Plato discusses, in a section which has become famous as the ‘critique of writing’, the value of writing in general and the philosopher’s attitude to his writings in particular. Since the unity of thought in the Phaedrus is not very easy to understand, this section has all too often been treated in isolation from the overall context of the dialogue, and there has not even been any inquiry into whether there is a concrete relationship between its assertions and the structure of the other dialogues. It is, however, of decisive importance to understand the critique of writing as the culmination of the Phaedrus, for it is only by understanding this that the critique also becomes a key to understanding the structure of the Platonic dialogues in general.
