Consciousness as a non-Entity

Consciousness is the faculty for perceiving that which exists—this means that consciousness is not an entity. Entities are self-sufficient existents—consciousness is a faculty possessed by certain existents. Just as “red” or “hot” cannot exist on their own–apart from a thing that is red or hot–so too can “intelligent,” “aware,” “possessing a conceptual faculty,” not exist on their own. This doesn’t mean that consciousness lacks identity—existence is identity, so every existent has identity, and consciousness certainly exists. Rather, what this means is that consciousness is not a thing—it is not a he, she, it, it is an attribute: this thing has consciousness—one of it’s attributes is that it is aware of existence.