• first by focussing on the example of the khairein (Greek meaning, "to greet," hence, the frame tale in which Phaedrus and Socrates greet one another) and questioning its truth value
• how does the khairein accomplish its service "in the name of truth"?
• by coming first — like Platonic aletheia, it is primary
• by being natural — Platonic truth is vital and living like speech
• by being "outside" the disputes which ensue — aletheia situates, but does not partake in, the rhetorical applications (techne) it frames
• by being unified — the "unity of place corresponds to an infallible calculation or necessity" (69)• how is the khairein also already that which is secondary, unnatural, subject to dispute (or "inside" the arguments of the dialogue), and inevitably disunified?
• it is not "first"; it is not original; it is derivative; it is a narrative place, a site of myth; like writing, it stands for something that it is not (hence, in Platonic terms, it is a species of lie)
• it is not "natural"; it disrupts the normal, natural progress of things; it is the place to which Socrates is diverted, artificially, by a lure
• it is not "outside" the disputes which ensue; the myth of Orithyia which is linked to the setting of the khairein introduces all the disputes and participates in them
• it is not "unified" because that which it pretends to be – original, natural, outside – is disjoined from that which it also is (derivative, synthetic, inside)• the implicit truth-value of the khairein is a refutation of the idea of truth
• Derrida's analysis of the truth-status of the khairein directs him to an analysis of Socrates's position on the seemliness of writing
• the truth of Socrates's evaluation is rendered questionable by his dependance on rumour as his citation
• instead of pointing to something manifestly real – instead of referring – Socrates recites, he cites again something which has been cited before
• already in accounting for writing, Socrates fails to distinguish himself from writing, to separate himself from citation of a missing speaker, an absent origin
• to deplore writing Socrates deploys the definitive features of writing• the legend of Theuth (later called Thoth) and Thamos (also Ammon and, later, Ra)
• Theuth = inventor of writing, Thamos = judge
• the invention occasions the judgment, gives birth to the idea of the judge
• the son fathers the father• Ammon's name cites writing: "to hide" and "come to me"
• in a related legend, Thoth replaces Ra, duplicating all but his originality (writing supposedly cannot preserve aletheia's vital essence)
• but "originality" is a product of writing: it would not be conceivable in advance of writing's supposed failure to embody it
• writing is the origin of the origin
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