But this is only because they both lay the same claims, and because the alter Ego follows all the variations of the Ego: if the perceiving I is genuinely an I, it cannot perceive a different one; if the perceiving subject is anonymous, the other which it perceives is equally so; so when, within this collective consciousness, we try to bring out the plurality of consciousnesses, we shall find ourselves back with the difficulties which we thought we had left behind.