I say, things exist. We perceive them, but they exist whether we are there to perceive them or not.
Our perceptions can be fooled - intentionally. But this tells me even more so that there is an objective reality.
The 'me' within me, it IS me. I am my skin, my blood, my bones. But bits of 'me' can be removed, leaving Me here... When I had my wisdom teeth pulled, they ceased to be of Me and were themselves. Since they lacked all organs of consideration, I'd consider it absolutely sensible that they are without an inner Self, Soul, etc.
In fact, I'd venture a guess to say that the thing we'd like to consider the Self resides firmly within the cells of the Brain, albeit in no specified part of said brain. The fact that brains can continue to function with huge sections missing or damaged suggests a magnificent redundancy capability of the brain; it further suggests that Self resides throughout the brain in total, and can be adjusted as needed when the brain suffers damage.
Remove a person's brain, and the person cannot live. For all other organs, AFAIK, we can replace organs with machines, devices, etc... but for the brain, nothing can 'sit in' for it. So the 'self' lies in the tissues of the brain.
This being true, what about the rest of the being?
Well, as I see it, the body is a vessel - a highly comlplex machine which serves the brain. It was not designed as such; rather evolutionary forces created this unique scenario. Thus, loss of a body part is irrelevant to the self, save obviously for pain, discomfort, and aggravation of said loss; if I lose an eye, my vision may be impaired, but my self remains. If I lose a limb, likewise.
And we can replace many parts artificially - so the body can be rendered complete once more, albeit not AS complete.
When the self dies, however, what remains is plant food. The body is not sacred; it is just rotting organic matter that should not waste space in some cemetary.
Consider that every 7 years, most of your body is completely new (well, replaced, anyway). Total body replacement happens every seven years, roughly, except for the brain, I think. (May be wrong there). Of course, this doesn't happen all at once, or smoothly across the whole body; but if you could suppress a cellular infestation like AIDS for seven years, there's a chance you could be cured because all of the infested cells would be cycled out of the body.
Does this affect the Self? Apparently not.
At any rate, what I say is, things are external to the Self, and our perceptions of them are consistant enough and accurate enough that we may reasonably assume the reality of our perceptions, and therefore have no need to ponder philosophically on the 'true' nature of things. If you question All-That-Is, then you get nowhere; therefore, questioning the nature of your perceived universe is pointless, useless, and moronic.
