Existentialism is a movement within continental philosophy that developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries. As a loose philosophical school, some persons associated with existentialism explicitly rejected the label (e.g. Martin Heidegger), and others are not remembered primarily as philosophers, but as writers (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) or theologians (Paul Tillich). It is related to several movements within continental philosophy including phenomenology, nihilism, absurdism, and post-modernism.
| Name | Lived | Nationality | Occupation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – September 9, 1990 | Italy | Philosopher | Also associated with neopositivism | ||
| – September 25, 1976 | Colombia | Philosopher | Founded Nadaism | ||
| – December 4, 1975 | Germany | Philosopher | Also associated with phenomenology, associate of Heidegger | ||
| – July 25, 2002 | Egypt | Philosopher | |||
| – March 18, 2008 | United States | Philosopher, author | Translated Sartre into English | ||
| – December 10, 1968 | Switzerland | Theologian | Founder of neo-orthodoxy | ||
| – March 25, 1948 | Russia | Theologian, philosopher | Christian existentialist | ||
| – September 12, 1977 | South Africa | Activist | |||
| – June 13, 1965 | Germany | Theologian | Worked with Rosenzweig | ||
| – July 30, 1976 | Germany | Theologian | |||
| – January 28, 1972 | Italy | Author | Also associated with magical realism | ||
| – January 4, 1960 | France | Philosopher, author | Founded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Sartre; developer of the Absurdism | ||
| – April 21, 1866 | United Kingdom | Essayist | Wife of Thomas Carlyle | ||
| – February 5, 1881 | United Kingdom | Author, historian | Husband of Jane Welsh Carlyle | ||
| – June 20, 1995 | Romania | Philosopher, essayist | Also associated with pessimism | ||
| – April 14, 1986 | France | Philosopher, anthropologist | Founded Les Temps modernes with Camus and Sartre; predecessor of second-wave feminism | ||
| – | United States | Philosopher, playwright, cultural critic | Author of Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx and Freud | ||
| – February 9, 1881 | Russia | Novelist | Foundational figure of existentialism | ||
| – October 16, 1988 | United States | Philosopher | Also associated with Phenomenology, co-founded the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy with Wild and James M. Edie | ||
| – April 16, 1994 | United States | Novelist | Wrote Invisible Man, associate of Wright | ||
| – December 6, 1961 | France (Martinique), Algeria | Philosopher, anthropologist, psychiatrist | Also associated with Marxism | ||
| – November 17, 1991 | Czechoslovakia | Philosopher | Also associated with phenomenology | ||
| – October 2 or 3, 1944 | Romania | Author, poet, film director | |||
| – October 20, 1894 | United Kingdom | Historian | |||
| – January 11, 1966 | Switzerland | Artist | Known for his artistic style and the existential crisis within | ||
| –1994 | Lithuania | Philosopher | Christian existentialist | ||
| – February 16, 1964 | Colombia | Philosopher, Lawyer | Works inspired Nadaism | ||
| – | United States | Philosopher | Also associated with Africana philosophy, Black existentialism, and phenomenology | ||
| – May 26, 1976 | Germany | Philosopher | Also associated with phenomenology and hermeneutics, associate of Arendt, rejected the label of "existentialist" | ||
| – April 26, 1938 | Austria, Germany | Philosopher | Founder of Phenomenology | ||
| – March 15, 1940 | Romania | Philosopher, mathematician | |||
| – March 28, 1994 | Romania | Playwright, essayist | Foundational figure of absurdism | ||
| – August 26, 1910 | United States | Philosopher, psychologist | Foundational figure of pragmatism | ||
| – February 26, 1969 | Germany | Philosopher | Also associated with neo-Kantianism | ||
| – June 3, 1924 | Austria-Hungary (Bohemian) | Novelist | Foundational figure of existentialism | ||
| – September 4, 1980 | United States | Philosopher | Translated Hegel, Goethe, Buber and Nietzsche's works into English | ||
| – November 11, 1855 | Denmark | Theologian, philosopher, author | Foundational figure of existentialism, Christian existentialist | ||
| – April 19, 1928 | Czechoslovakia | Philosopher, novelist | Also associated with subjective idealism | ||
| – December 25, 1995 | Lithuania, France | Philosopher, theologian | Studied with Heidegger and Husserl | ||
| – May 28, 2007 | United Kingdom | Theologian | Christian existentialist | ||
| – October 7, 1944 | Lithuania | Poet | |||
| – August 30, 2006 | Egypt | Novelist | |||
| – October 8, 1973 | France | Theologian, philosopher | Christian existentialist | ||
| – May 3, 1961 | France | Philosopher | Also associated with phenomenology, associate of de Beauvoir and Sartre | ||
| – August 25, 1900 | Germany | Philosopher | Foundational figure of existentialism, also associated with nihilism | ||
| – October 18, 1955 | Spain | Philosopher | Also associated with perspectivism, pragmatism, vitalism, and historicism | ||
| –1969 | Ukraine | Novelist, anthropologist | |||
| – December 10, 1929 | Germany | Theologian, philosopher | Worked with Buber | ||
| – April 15, 1980 | France | Philosopher, novelist, activist | Also associated with Marxism, co-founded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Camus | ||
| – April 1, 1992 | Palestine | Politician, philosopher | |||
| – November 19, 1938 | Russia, France | Philosopher | Also associated with Irrationalism | ||
| – April 9, 1993 | United States | Rabbi | |||
| – October 22, 1965 | United States, Germany | Theologian, philosopher | Christian existentialist | ||
| –1978 | South Africa | Philosopher | Also associated with Marxism, studied with Sartre | ||
| – December 31, 1936 | Spain | Novelist, essayist, dramatist, philosopher | |||
| – October 23, 1972 | United States | Philosopher | Originally associated with empiricism, realism, and pragmatism; later associated with phenomenology; co-founded the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy with Earle and James M. Edie | ||
| – December 5, 2013 | United Kingdom | Author | Wrote The Outsider | ||
| – November 28, 1960 | United States | Author | Pioneer of Black existentialism and chronicler of the black experience in the American South. Onetime mentor of James Baldwin; strongly influenced Fanon and other Négritude writers, close friends with Sartre and De Beauvoir. Had significant impact on European and African literary existentialism | ||
| – October 12, 1990 | Norway | Philosopher | Founded biosophy | ||
| [1] | – 21 April 1938 | Pakistan | Philosopher, writer, poet, politician | National Poet of Pakistan | |
| – Present | United States | Philosopher | Also associated with Sociology |
Several thinkers who lived prior to the rise of existentialism have been retroactively considered proto-existentialists for their approach to philosophy and lifestyle.
| Name | Lived | Nationality | Occupation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augustine of Hippo | – August 28, 430 | Algeria | Theologian | At various times associated with neoplatonism, Doctor of the Church |
| [2] | – June 14, 1837 | Italy | Poet, writer and philosopher | Romanticism, classicism and pessimism |
| Mulla Sadra | –1636 | Persia | Philosopher | Islamic philosopher associated with illuminationism and transcendent theosophy |
| – August 19, 1662 | France | Mathematician, physicist, philosopher, theologian | ||
| – July 2, 1778 | Switzerland | Philosopher | Foundational figure of social contract theory, French Revolution, socialism | |
| Socrates | Greece | Philosopher | Founder of Western philosophy | |
| Stoics | Greece | – | Philosophical school influenced by Socrates through Plato | |
| – May 6, 1862 | United States | Author, poet | Foundational figure of transcendentalism | |
| Arthur Schopenhauer | – September 21,1860 | Germany | Philosopher | Post-Kantian philosophy, German idealism |
| Max Stirner[3] | – June 26,1856 | Germany | Philosopher | Egoist anarchism, Young Hegelians |