To me this feels mostly as sophistry. The point of what constitutes the “self” is not the same as what makes the self happy or satisfied or feel like it has a purpose. A brain is an information-processing system that takes information from outside and decides on behaviour from it. Me feeling sad because I lost my job isn’t some loss of the self, it’s my brain doing exactly its job, because now my survival is at risk so I feel stressed and compelled to act. The way I “lose myself” if someone I love dies is very very different in meaning from the way I “lose myself” if I get lobotomized and literal whole chunks of my memory or personality are gone. “What can be taken away without affecting me at all” is not a question that is very useful to question the nature of the self. The question is, what can be taken away without affecting me other than via the informational content of the fact that it has been taken away. And that includes my job, my loved ones, and mostly my arms and legs. A computer also can not do much of use without a keyboard, a screen, and a power source, but no one would question that what determines the core performance and capabilities of that computer is the CPU.
Also that quote on Hawking is basically a cheap dunk. Clearly Hawking was talking about cognitive abilities. Again, anyone can be temporarily reduced to that state by e.g. being drugged or tied, blindfolded and gagged, and yet no one would argue that means they “selfness” is reduced in any way during the experience.
To me this feels mostly as sophistry. The point of what constitutes the “self” is not the same as what makes the self happy or satisfied or feel like it has a purpose. A brain is an information-processing system that takes information from outside and decides on behaviour from it. Me feeling sad because I lost my job isn’t some loss of the self, it’s my brain doing exactly its job, because now my survival is at risk so I feel stressed and compelled to act. The way I “lose myself” if someone I love dies is very very different in meaning from the way I “lose myself” if I get lobotomized and literal whole chunks of my memory or personality are gone. “What can be taken away without affecting me at all” is not a question that is very useful to question the nature of the self. The question is, what can be taken away without affecting me other than via the informational content of the fact that it has been taken away. And that includes my job, my loved ones, and mostly my arms and legs. A computer also can not do much of use without a keyboard, a screen, and a power source, but no one would question that what determines the core performance and capabilities of that computer is the CPU.
Also that quote on Hawking is basically a cheap dunk. Clearly Hawking was talking about cognitive abilities. Again, anyone can be temporarily reduced to that state by e.g. being drugged or tied, blindfolded and gagged, and yet no one would argue that means they “selfness” is reduced in any way during the experience.