Mr Palomar’s first move is defensive. He declares: ‘But I’ve never claimed to have a universal thought. I regard what I think as forming a part of thinkable things, for the simple fact that I am thinking it. Period.’

But the tortoise – the tortoise in his head – replies: ‘That’s not true. You are inclined to attribute general validity to your reasoning, not because you choose to, but because the forma mentis that moulds your thoughts demands it.’

Then Mr Palomar: ‘You’re not taking into consideration the fact that I have learned to distinguish, in what I happen to think, various levels of truth, and to recognize what is motivated either by particular points of view or the prejudices I hold. For example, what I think as a member of the fortunate class, that someone less privileged would not; or as someone who belongs to one geographical area, tradition or culture as opposed to another; or what is presumed to be exclusive to the male sex, which a woman would confute.’

‘In so doing,’ the tortoise interjects, ‘you attempt to distil, from biased and partial motivations, a quintessential I valid for all possible forms of I, and not just a portion of them.’

‘Let’s say that you’re right, and that this is the conclusion I’m after. What would your objection be, Tortoise?’

‘That even if you managed to identify with the totality of the human race, you would still be a prisoner of a partial, petty and – if I may say so – provincial point of view with respect to the totality of existence.’

‘Do you mean that I should assume responsibility, in all its presumed truth, not only for the entire human race, past, present and future, but also for all species of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, not to mention crustaceans, molluscs, arachnids, insects, echinoderms, annelids and even protozoans?’

‘Yes, because there is no reason for the world’s reason to identify with yours rather than mine; with a man’s reason and not a tortoise’s.’

‘There could be a reason, one whose objective certainty cannot be cast into doubt: namely, that language is one of the faculties specific to man; consequently, human thought, based on the mechanisms of language, cannot compare to the mute thought of you tortoises.’

‘Admit it, Man: you think that I don’t think.’

‘I can neither confirm nor deny this. But even if we could prove that thought exists inside your retractable head, I must take the liberty of translating it into words to allow it to exist for others as well, besides yourself. Just as I am doing at this moment: lending you a language so that you can think your thoughts.’

‘I take it you manage effortlessly. Is it because you are generous, or because you are convinced that a tortoise’s capacity to think is inferior to your own?’

‘Let’s just say it’s different. Thanks to language, Man can conceive of things that are not present, things he hasn’t seen and never will, abstract concepts. Animals, one assumes, are imprisoned by a horizon of immediate sensations.’