> We literally spend almost all day, every day, thinking about ourselves, in terms of our inner self.

> That is consciousness.

So thinking is consciousness?

Can there be consciousness without content? E.g. can I just be conscious of being conscious? If so, consciousness cannot be defined as the thing(s) we're conscious of.

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layer8 11 days ago | parent [-]

> Can there be consciousness without content? E.g. can I just be conscious of being conscious?

Being conscious of being conscious means that there is content. You are conscious of something.

It’s a bit like a Gödel statement that quotes itself, that is a statement about itself. It doesn’t mean that it has no content.

Thinking isn’t consciousness. Consciousness doesn’t require thinking, it only requires perception. The perception of a process of perception within the same mind might constitute consciousness.

	▲	Nevermark 10 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don’t think thinking is consciousness, but I don’t see how consciousness operates without thinking. Consciousness might feel like it’s an isolatable experience, but everything we experience is a result of processing it. Pause a brain and it isn’t experiencing anything, We can be conscious without overt reasoning, but not without thinking. Thinking about ourselves and the experience is a basic component of the self-awareness in consciousness.
	▲	runeks 10 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Consciousness doesn’t require thinking, it only requires perception. Could we imagine a human being that is conscious but has no sensory input nor any occurring thoughts but is still conscious?