Abstract

In this paper, I will begin to develop a way of understanding the relation between the Phaedrus’ two halves. Following a discussion of the beautiful as it appears primarily in Socrates’ palinode, I will outline certain structural similarities between to kalon and writing as they appear to embodied psychē. Such a soul’s relation to both the written text and the eidos of the beautiful marks the site of a crisis, the exposure to which enables the genesis of a movement that would be properly philosophical. As a crisis, however, there is no guarantee that this necessary exposure, this relation to the ‘outside,’ will give rise to philosophy. The possibility of philosophy thus depends on that which puts the love of wisdom in contact with its opposite. Insofar as this threat appears in the context of writing and the beautiful, the Phaedrus displays the risk with which philosophy, as a mortal endeavor, begins.