True philosophy consists in a discussion between teacher and pupil, and the insights one achieves in this way cannot just be stated in so many words. The author of the Seventh Letter gives a kind of metaphysical argument for this (342a–344c). Words are distant echoes or images of true reality, so that it is impossible to capture reality perfectly in language. Still worse is putting one’s thoughts into writing rather than live speech, since the written words will inevitably be vulnerable to
