My actions are motivated by selfishly seeking value from other people and situations. Even when I am kind to others, the basis is reciprocity -- what I would want others to do for me.
Being measurement-oriented, it seems the concept of "self" is not sufficiently well-defined to be measurable. First, I don't think there's a specific location in my body that contains "self." Also, when does the air I breath become part of my self? When I pee and poop, is that losing my self? If I lose a finger, do I lose my self? This ship of Theseus argument is a second attack on the concept of self.
"Self" is a construct, similar to other conventions like "property". The consequence of this construct is both cognitive and emotional even though there is no physical manifestation.
These same arguments could be applied to a pineapple. There is no physical component (the skin, the flesh) that one could isolate as "pineapple," but the label still applies to the physical object.
Labels get applied to physical entities and concepts. An example of a concept-label is "self" whereas a physical-label is "body."
We presume that labels, combined with logical analysis, will yield useful conclusions. Labels are often not always consistent with reality. Thus, even when logic is applied correctly, the conclusions may be wrong. Identifying which labels are more closely aligned with reality and which are less accurate helps me figure out how certain my conclusions should be.
