List of existentialists


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, and others are not remembered primarily as philosophers, but as writers or theologians. It is related to several movements within continental philosophy including phenomenology, nihilism, absurdism, and post-modernism.
NameLivedNationalityOccupationNotes
– September 9, 1990ItalyPhilosopherAlso associated with neopositivism
– September 25, 1976ColombiaPhilosopherFounded Nadaism
– December 4, 1975GermanyPhilosopherAlso associated with phenomenology, associate of Heidegger
– July 25, 2002EgyptPhilosopher
– March 18, 2008United StatesPhilosopher, authorTranslated Sartre into English
– December 10, 1968SwitzerlandTheologianFounder of neo-orthodoxy
– March 25, 1948RussiaTheologian, philosopherChristian existentialist
– September 12, 1977South AfricaActivist
– June 13, 1965GermanyTheologianWorked with Rosenzweig
– July 30, 1976GermanyTheologian
– January 28, 1972ItalyAuthorAlso associated with magical realism
– January 4, 1960FrancePhilosopher, authorFounded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Sartre; developer of the Absurdism
– April 21, 1866United KingdomEssayistWife of Thomas Carlyle
– February 5, 1881United KingdomAuthor, historianHusband of Jane Welsh Carlyle
– June 20, 1995RomaniaPhilosopher, essayistAlso associated with pessimism
– April 14, 1986FrancePhilosopher, anthropologistFounded Les Temps modernes with Camus and Sartre; predecessor of second-wave feminism
–United StatesPhilosopher, playwright, cultural criticAuthor of Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx and Freud
– February 9, 1881RussiaNovelistFoundational figure of existentialism
– October 16, 1988United StatesPhilosopherAlso associated with Phenomenology, co-founded the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy with Wild and James M. Edie
– April 16, 1994United StatesNovelistWrote Invisible Man, associate of Wright
– December 6, 1961France, AlgeriaPhilosopher, anthropologist, psychiatristAlso associated with Marxism
– November 17, 1991CzechoslovakiaPhilosopherAlso associated with phenomenology
– October 2 or 3, 1944RomaniaAuthor, poet, film director
– October 20, 1894United KingdomHistorian
– January 11, 1966SwitzerlandArtistKnown for his artistic style and the existential crisis within
–1994LithuaniaPhilosopherChristian existentialist
– February 16, 1964ColombiaPhilosopher, LawyerWorks inspired Nadaism
–United StatesPhilosopherAlso associated with Africana philosophy, Black existentialism, and phenomenology
– May 26, 1976GermanyPhilosopherAlso associated with phenomenology and hermeneutics, associate of Arendt, rejected the label of "existentialist"
– April 26, 1938Austria, GermanyPhilosopherFounder of Phenomenology
– March 15, 1940RomaniaPhilosopher, mathematician
-March 28, 1994RomaniaPlaywright, essayistFoundational figure of absurdism
– August 26, 1910United StatesPhilosopher, psychologistFoundational figure of pragmatism
– February 26, 1969GermanyPhilosopherAlso associated with neo-Kantianism
– June 3, 1924Austria–HungaryNovelistFoundational figure of existentialism
– September 4, 1980United StatesPhilosopherTranslated Hegel, Goethe, Buber and Nietzsche into English
– November 11, 1855DenmarkTheologian, philosopher, authorFoundational figure of existentialism, Christian existentialist
– April 19, 1928CzechoslovakiaPhilosopher, novelistAlso associated with subjective idealism
– December 25, 1995Lithuania, FrancePhilosopher, theologianStudied with Heidegger and Husserl
– May 28, 2007United KingdomTheologianChristian existentialist
– October 7, 1944LithuaniaPoet
– August 30, 2006EgyptNovelist
– October 8, 1973FranceTheologian, philosopherChristian existentialist
– May 3, 1961FrancePhilosopherAlso associated with phenomenology, associate of de Beauvoir and Sartre
– August 25, 1900GermanyPhilosopherFoundational figure of existentialism, also associated with nihilism
– October 18, 1955SpainPhilosopherAlso associated with perspectivism, pragmatism, vitalism, and historicism
–1969UkraineNovelist, anthropologist
– December 10, 1929GermanyTheologian, philosopherWorked with Buber
– April 15, 1980FrancePhilosopher, novelist, activistAlso associated with Marxism, co-founded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Camus
– April 1, 1992PalestinePolitician, philosopher
– November 19, 1938Russia, FrancePhilosopherAlso associated with Irrationalism
– April 9, 1993United StatesRabbi
– October 22, 1965United States, GermanyTheologian, philosopherChristian existentialist
–1978South AfricaPhilosopherAlso associated with Marxism, studied with Sartre
– December 31, 1936SpainNovelist, essayist, dramatist, philosopher
– October 23, 1972United StatesPhilosopherOriginally 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, 2013United KingdomAuthorWrote The Outsider
– November 28, 1960United StatesAuthorPioneer 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, 1990NorwayPhilosopherFounded biosophy

Pre-existentialist philosophers

Several thinkers who lived prior to the rise of existentialism have been retroactively considered proto-existentialists for their approach to philosophy and lifestyle.
NameLivedNationalityOccupationNotes
Augustine of Hippo – August 28, 430AlgeriaTheologianAt various times associated with neoplatonism, Doctor of the Church
– June 14, 1837ItalyPoet, writer and philosopherRomanticism, classicism and pessimism
Mulla Sadra–1636PersiaPhilosopherIslamic philosopher associated with illuminationism and transcendent theosophy
– August 19, 1662FranceMathematician, physicist, philosopher, theologian
– July 2, 1778SwitzerlandPhilosopherFoundational figure of social contract theory, French Revolution, socialism
SocratesGreecePhilosopherFounder of Western philosophy
StoicsGreece–Philosophical school influenced by Socrates through Plato
– May 6, 1862United StatesAuthor, poetFoundational figure of transcendentalism
Arthur Schopenhauer – September 21,1860GermanyPhilosopherPost-Kantian philosophy, German idealism