After reading through Parry and Lord’s oral tradition theories, I decided to take a deeper look at why Socrates hated the artists so much. In this paper, I focus on his dialogue the Phaedrus, give particular attention to Derrida’s examination of it, and come away with many more questions than answers.

I gave this paper to The Wednesday Group on 1 May 2024. It appeared in Issue 191 of The Wednesday.