He is only the sum of life is so far he has created and achieved for himself. Existentialism acquires its name from insisting that existence precedes essence. Existentialist thinkers are of the view that the metaphysical explanation of existence as given by the traditional schools of philosophy fails to produce satisfactory results. They also maintain that the problem of being ought to take precedence in all philosophical inquiry.
Existence is always particular, unique and individual.
Existentialist are opposed to the view laws explaining human freedom and activity can be formulated. Being is revealed to and felt by the human being through his own experience and his situation. So it is maintained existence is the first and central problem. Existentialism stresses the risk, the voidness of human reality and admits that the human being is thrown into the world, the world in which pain, frustration, sickness, contempt, malaise and death dominates. It was during the Second World War, when Europe found itself in a crisis and faced with death and destruction, the existentialist movement began to flourish.