Abstract
It is usually, and without much disagreement, regarded that ‘knowing one’s own
consciousness’ is strikingly and fundamentally different from ‘knowing other things’.
The peculiar way in which conscious subjects introspectively know their own
consciousness in their immediate awareness is of immense importance with regard to the
understanding of consciousness insofar as it has a direct bearing upon consciousness’
fundamental existence. However, when it comes to the understanding of consciousness,
the role of consciousness’ introspective knowledge is rather downplayed or not given
much importance with regard to its ontology. With this in the background, the whole
purpose of this paper is, first, to make the rather obvious point that the very existence of
consciousness in its most fundamental form is constituted by this introspective
knowledge of it or its epistemic dimension, whereby its ontology gets its epistemological
or epistemic nature. Second, it aims to strengthen the explanatory gap argument by
appealing to our enhanced understanding of consciousness in terms of its epistemic
ontology.