Nothing can be distinguished wihtout the criteria of self to distinguish things. Why?
- What are the criteria of self to distingusih things?
- Do the criteria of self to distinguish things vary?
Do you mean the criteria the self uses to distinguish things, or the criteria the self must meet in order to distinguish things? I think the self must be (imagined to be) one and unchanging. I think the “things” it distinguishes are bundles of impressions relatively different from its other impressions, which it takes to be absolutely different (even as it takes similar impressions to be the same).
In simple biological terms there must be a self, a this, which transacts with an environment, a that. If the self could not accurately identify what is other than the self, the environment where noursihments reside, it would cause the extinction of the organism.