An important inspiration for such theories lies in the idea that, pre-theoretically or commonsensically, we are inclined to endorse the idea that conscious states are states we are conscious of. One takes this to have the status of a necessary truth pertaining to all conscious states, and gives it a representationalist construal. This yields the starting point: some sort of higher-order or self-representation is necessary for a state to be conscious in a pre-theoretically recognized sense. We al