Can unconditional love exist? An epistemological examination.
Perhaps some would disagree, but for the purposes of this writeup, unconditional love can be taken as love for a person regardless of how they behave, of any changes in their appearance, or any other circumstances. Unconditional love is to love a person, not that person's mind, which might be changed, or body, which might fall apart.
The question then arises: if unconditional love abstracts a person from their physical and mental characteristics, what is this "person"? What is it you are loving? The simplest answer would be "their soul;" however, what most people think of as a soul is really just part of a person's behaviour. If you loved a girl with an honest soul, would she still be the same person, when you find out that she lied to you?
Our consciousness, and perhaps, our ego, lead us to believe that we exist in some fundamental way, far beyond the simple chemical composition of our bodies. We would like to think that we can love this 'self' But what could this self possibly be?
To me, it is disturbing to be told that I am loved unconditionally. It seems that in a case like that it isn't me that is being loved. If I were to act completely contrary to my nature, I would supposedly still be loved. Of course, perhaps it's impossible to act contrary to one's nature...