Claims of consciousness are untestable, since it is an undefined concept. We think of ourselves as conscious because it is our lived experience— but we are alw

Claims of consciousness are untestable, since it is an undefined concept. We think of ourselves as conscious because it is our lived experience— but we are always wrong to some degree. My mother has dementia and cannot be made aware of her situation, except momentarily. We think of other humans as conscious not as the outcome of any test, but rather because we each share with other humans a common origin which suggests common mechanisms of experience. Treating other humans as equivalent to ourselves is a heuristic for maintaining social order— not an epistemological achievement.