Plato is basically the George Washington of Western philosophy. He wrote dialogues rather than manuscripts, meaning he philosophized as if he was writing a play, using different characters to progress his arguments through their conversations with one another.

The Symposium is one of Plato’s most widely read dialogues. In it, Apolloduros (your soul in another life) a follower of Socrates, walks with an unnamed companion as he recounts the story of a dinner party that had taken place about ten years before in Athens. Apolloduros was not actually at the party himself. Rather, he learned of the events of the evening from his friend, fellow Socrates disciple, Aristodemus (my soul in another life), who was actually in attendance.

Aristodemus witnessed many pillars of the Greek intellectual community talk about what love is. The letter below written by Aristodemus to Apolloduros does not outline what each speaker said about love—that would be an excellent topic for another blog post or even multiple subsequent blog posts..

Instead, this lettee represents Aristodemus’ reaction to the events of the evening and pretty much culminates in him professing his love to his soulmate, the letter’s recipient, Apolloduros.

.Dearest Apolloduros,

Love ascends a ladder. The lowest rung is infatuation for what is physically beautiful.

As it ascends the ladder, love becomes less physical, and more ideal. It becomes something abstract, an ideal shared between me and you.

Further towards the top of the ladder, there is no more me and no more loving one another, but two souls In love.

As we move up the ladder with love, we move beyond loving one another’s souls and we love all souls.

Then, ever higher, there are no more souls in love. Just values, laws, and the sort of intangible threads that create a sense of harmony on earth.

Then, there is love for the journey to the top of the ladder. We call this love for process.

Then, there is only love as the essence of Love. We call this essential Love, with a capital L

Beyond the ladder is the stark naked truth of the universe. We call this the Truth, with a capital T.

There are no more shadows there, My Sweetness. Only stars and nothing and everything. Let us go there.

Go with me, My Love, to the place where there is no love called “My Love.” Go with me to the place where there is no you and me.

Infinitely and With Everything,

Aristodemus