A good phrase, however, seems to me to have an independent existence.

This moved them toward independent existence, which they have maintained to the present.

I was struck by the obvious fact of her independent existence.

They did not believe in an independent existence of evil.

Your number system has no independent existence in the real world.

"Time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it."

On 1 September 1989 eighteen schools began their independent existence.

For national liberation, greater emphasis must fall upon the independent existence of a nation.

In the process of transmission the message does not have an independent existence.

If it does, then what is the locus of this independent existence?