

Søren Kierkegaard was present at this occasion and the idea can be found in Kierkegaard's works in the 19th century, but was explicitly formulated by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th century. By posing the acts that constitute them, they make their existence more significant. That identity or value must be created by the individual. To existentialists, human beings-through their consciousness-create their own values and determine a meaning for their life because the human being does not possess any inherent identity or value. The proposition that existence precedes essence ( French: l'existence précède l'essence) is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence (the nature) of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence (the mere fact of its being). For the transcendent theosophy founder, see Mulla Sadra.

This article is about the existentialist phrase coined by Jean-Paul Sartre.
