The proposition that "existence precedes essence" is a central statement of Existentialism, which goes against the traditional philosophical view that the essence (nature) of a thing is more fundamental and immovable than its existence (the fact of its being). To existentialists, people - through their consciousness - create their own values and determine the meaning for their life because man does not possess any essential identity or value. By presenting the actions that make up him or her, he or she makes his or her existence more important.
The idea can be found in the works of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in the 19th century , but was explicitly formulated by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th century in his 1946 lecture "Existentialism is Humanism", although some of its initial inspiration can be found in Heidegger's "The Being and Time" . A similar statement was made by Simone de Beauvoir who uses this concept in her feminist existentialism in "The Second Sex" to develop the idea that "one is not a born woman, but becomes that".
Sartre's claim about how "existence precedes essence" is best understood in contrast to a solid principle of metaphysics that essence precedes existence , i.e. which is such a thing as human nature , determined by the cosmic order (or God), laid down by religious tradition or legislated by political or social authority . A typical claim for this traditional thesis would be that this person is essentially selfish or that he is a rational being.
For Sartre, the idea that existence precedes essence means that a personality is not built on something of a previously designed model or a precise goal, because it is the person who chooses to engage in such an enterprise. Not denying the limiting conditions of human existence, he responds to Spinoza who claimed that man is determined by what surrounds him and holds that "we are doomed to be free".
