> 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.
> 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.