The Void of the Observer: A Thought Experiment on Pure Consciousness

This paper presents a thought experiment exploring the minimal conditions of consciousness by imagining a state of total phenomenological isolation. By systematically removing sensory input, bodily awareness, memory, imagination, and motor agency—while preserving wakefulness—it examines whether any irreducible residue of consciousness remains. The inquiry ultimately asks whether consciousness is something that has contents, or whether it can persist as a self-referential process even when all contents are erased.