Consciousness is the aggregate of emotional, sensory, and thought formations. With these forming a thread into a narrative through memory, we forge identities. All of this happens in the substrate that is consciousness.
If it is unclear why consciousness is not a social construct, you can experiment with isolation and introspection. Retreats, meditation, psychedelics, anything that involves observing the movements of your mind without getting tangled up into words and semantics.
> Consciousness is the aggregate of emotional, sensory, and thought formations...
That's one theory among many. Are these identities static or dynamic in nature?
> If it is unclear why consciousness is not a social construct, you can experiment with isolation and introspection. Retreats, meditation, psychedelics, anything that involves observing the movements of your mind without getting tangled up into words and semantics.
I don't find this compelling because it's really difficult to find a person who wasn't born to another person and lived amongst other people in order to run this experiment.
"Observing" myself thinking of a movie while I meditate seems circular and I don't think you can be an observer and be the observed at the same time.
It's as much a theory as saying that a body is formed of limbs, torso, head, etc. I have a body, I inhabit it and can observe it directly.
You're trying to word your way out of words.
It's like you're asking me what's atop a mountain and you keep making conjectures and assumptions about what is or isn't up there. The answer is to just go climb it instead of taking your assumptions for reality.
> I don't think you can be an observer and be the observed at the same time.
If it is unclear why consciousness is not a social construct, you can experiment with isolation and introspection. Retreats, meditation, psychedelics, anything that involves observing the movements of your mind without getting tangled up into words and semantics.