Originally Posted by FriedPhoton

I'm going to disagree with this based upon my belief that consciousness is self-awareness. We understand our self to be that which we feel is connected to us and providing feedback via our nervous system. Inside our heads it's dark and there is no way to perceive anything aside from perhaps a lack of oxygen or chemical imbalance, but even those things we understand as happening to ourselves because we can detect the change. And the rest of our senses we understand are a part of self because we perceive the stimulus they send our brain. I do not look at my neighbor's eye and wonder if her eye is a part of me. I know it isn't because I do not perceive input coming from it. There is a clear distinction between myself and other people, the boundary of which is the extent of my nervous system. A sense of self is about as real as anything in the world. No rationalization is required.