Be a solipsist or be pragmatic
Regarding consciousness as a necessary requirement for thought seems reasonable until you consider how you know if someone else is conscious. Solipsism is one respose to the uncertainty, judging pragmatically on the basis of behaviour another.
Pragmatically we often decide that others have minds on the basis of behaviour alone—just as we should do with computers.
Alan Turing (1950).
Solipsism: There are several varieties of solipsism.
Metaphysical solipsism is the thesis that nothing exists outside of one's own mind.
Strong epistemological solipsism maintains that nothing can be known to exist outside one's own mind.
Weak epistemological solipsism is the veiw that one can never know whether other people possess minds.
From A. R. Lacey's
Dictionary of Philosophy (1976).