Three a week: Self

Three questions about you:

Question 1: What are you?

Simple. Are you simply your physical body? If so, if you lose a limb, has your self-identity fundamentally changed? Is a double amputee less of a “self”? Certainly in a physical sense, but in what other way can there be?

Question 2: What is the physical process which results in your perception of “you”?

At what point do clumps of molecules receive a self-identity? If we are fundamentally physical, why in the world does the physical “self” deceive it”self”? What possible reason could molecules have for tricking themselves (which aren’t “aware” of themselves) into believing their own identity might be non-physical? Tricky question.

Question 3:  How reducible is the “self”?

Is a limbless body with a brain still a self? Seems to be. Why not the other way around, a brainless body? Perhaps the brain itself is the “self”. Though, it doesn’t seem to be conscious without the other physical surroundings of a body. Are you a “self” while you sleep, even if you aren’t conscious of it? While comatose? The split second after death? (keep in mind some people wake up after they are “dead”)

What is the minimal amount of molecules needed for a self, or is it even quantifiable at all?

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