Consciousness as a Generative Contextual Space: Toward a Formal Definition, Quantitative Measure, and an Operational Criterion

This article presents a novel theory of consciousness that shifts focus from neural states, information processing, or pure subjective experience to the logical structure of context and axiomatic agreement. Consciousness is defined as a rigorously axiomatised set of meanings pre-agreed upon to constitute a context. Its quantity is defined as the system's capacity to generate novel meanings and sub-contexts through logical necessity. By linking this definition to Gödel's incompleteness theorems, the article demonstrates the inherent finitude of any consciousness emerging from an initial axiomatic system. The only state of infinite possibilities is contextual blindness: the total absence of a founding axiomatic context, where the quantity of consciousness is zero. The article proposes a preliminary formal measure based on proof-theoretic ordinals and proof-tree complexity, and outlines a future computational simulation program. An appendix provides an operational criterion that transforms the classical question "Are you self-conscious?" into a testable, generative dialogical procedure. The theory offers a unified framework bridging epistemology, logic, and the quantitative study of mind.