Protagonists:

Richard: a middle-aged Oxford philosopher of the mid-twentieth century, dressed in cavalry twill slacks, waistcoat and tie, and well-cut jacket.

Jill: a philosopher in her early thirties, dressed in an elegant but informal manner.

Frank Craik: a contemporary American neuroscientist, casually dressed in jeans and pullover, with open-necked shirt. He has a marked American accent.

Descartes: in sombre Dutch mid-seventeenth century dress. Speaks with a thick French accent.

Aristotle: in Greek dress – himation and sandals.

The setting is a garden in Elysium. The sun is shining. A rich verdant lawn is surrounded by flower beds and flowering bushes, with a grove of magnificent trees behind. Beyond, there is a large lake and in the distance, high mountains. Five comfortable garden chairs are placed in the shade of some trees. There is a low table on which are placed a wine decanter and glasses, three of which are half full. Richard, Jill and Frank are deep in discussion.

Richard: But you must admit that it is very puzzling that we speak of having a mind and having a body. I mean, if I have a mind and also have a body, then who and what am I that has these two things?

Jill: Well, it seems obvious enough. After all, you just said ‘I have a mind’ and ‘I have a body’. It is you, the ‘I’, the Ego, the Self, that has a mind, on the one hand, and a body, on the other.

Richard: But, Jill, what on earth is this ‘I’ or ‘Ego’ or ‘self’? Surely I'm a human being.

Frank: Sure. And if you're a human being, then you can't be an Ego or Self. Unless human beings are selves.

Jill: All right. But then I surely have an Ego or Self. Human beings have selves.

Frank: No, no. Do I have a self? I've never come across it! I'm sure I'm sometimes selfish, but that doesn't mean that I have a self. And as for an Ego, that's just a fancy way of saying that I have an ‘I’. It may sound better in Latin, but it's just baloney. Look, talking of an ‘I’ is just plain ungrammatical. I mean, y'don't talk of the you, the she or the it. Well, it's just as ungrammatical to talk of an I, of the I, or of my I.