[Aquinasfan]

Consciousness is the revealed-revelation of existents, and existents appear before consciousness on the foundation of their being...

Thanks, I think. Can you translate this? I can't make heads or tails out of it.

Aquinas would have reversed Descarte's axiom, making it "I am, therefore I think." In the theophany of the burning bush God revealed his name to us: "I AM." We too can say "I am," reflecting in a mysterious way the essential truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God.

Also, since we are spiritual/material composite beings, it is possible for us to objectify our own bodies because the soul is in a sense "outside" the body. Perhaps it would be better to say that the soul encompasses the body. Regardless, for this reason it is impossible for the soul to "turn around" and "observe" itself. That is why it is impossible to observe our own consciousness from "the outside."

[BikerNYC]

Consciousness is the revealed-revelation of existents, and existents appear before consciousness on the foundation of their being...

Hmmmm...Sometimes Sartre is more valuable for the seasoning he gives a dish rather than for the actual meat he uses.

"Consciousness is the revealed-revelation of existents..." = Consciousness is that which reveals that which Is. Consciouss is nothing; it is, only to the extent that it is anything (with a small "i"), as something that reveals that which Is. It is a tending-toward that which Is in contrast to itself which is that which is-not. Since consciousness is-not, it is a being that is always in question as something that is nothing compared to all that is (Being = existents).

"...and existents appear before consciousness on the foundation of their being..." = Existents are all that are. They are Being, as opposed to consciousness, which is not-being. Existents appear to consciousness on the foundation of their being because that which Is is, only because it has as a foundation, Being.

Or something like that.