Richard Sorabji presents a brilliant exploration of the history of ourunderstanding of the self, which has remained elusive and mysterious throughoutthe spectacular development of human knowledge of the outside world. He rangesfrom ancient to contemporary thought, Western and Eastern, to reveal and assessthe insights of a remarkable variety of thinkers. He discusses a set of topicswhich are at the heart of our understanding of ourselves: personal identity;memory; the importance of seeing one’s life as a whole; the relation betweenself, intellect, will, and agency; self-awareness; the stream of consciousness;embodiment; death and survival. He rejects the view, found in variousphilosophical and religious writings, that the self is an illusion, and developshis own original conception of the self as essential to our ownership of ourexperience and our apprehension of the world.