Name Lived Nationality Occupation Notes Nicola Abbagnano July 15, 1901 – September 9, 1990Italy Philosopher Also associated with neopositivism Gonzalo Arango January 18, 1931 – September 25, 1976Colombia Philosopher Founded Nadaism Hannah Arendt [ 1] October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975Germany Philosopher Also associated with phenomenology , associate of Heidegger Abdel Rahman Badawi February 17, 1917 – July 25, 2002Egypt Philosopher Hazel Barnes December 16, 1915 – March 18, 2008United States Philosopher, author Translated Sartre into English Karl Barth May 10, 1886 – December 10, 1968Switzerland Theologian Founder of neo-orthodoxy Nikolai Berdyaev March 18, 1874 – March 25, 1948Russia Theologian, philosopher Christian existentialist Steve Biko December 18, 1946 – September 12, 1977South Africa Activist Martin Buber February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965Germany Theologian Worked with Rosenzweig Rudolf Bultmann August 20, 1884 – July 30, 1976Germany Theologian Dino Buzzati October 16, 1906 – January 28, 1972Italy Author Also associated with magical realism Albert Camus November 27, 1913 – January 4, 1960France Philosopher, author Founded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Sartre; developer of the Absurdism Jane Welsh Carlyle July 14, 1801 – April 21, 1866United Kingdom Essayist Wife of Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle December 4, 1795 – February 5, 1881United Kingdom Author, historian Husband of Jane Welsh Carlyle Emil Cioran April 8, 1911 – June 20, 1995Romania Philosopher, essayist Also associated with pessimism Simone de Beauvoir January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986France Philosopher, anthropologist Founded Les Temps modernes with Camus and Sartre; predecessor of second-wave feminism Walter A. Davis November 9, 1942 –United States Philosopher, playwright, cultural critic Author of Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx and Freud Fyodor Dostoyevsky November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881Russia Novelist Foundational figure of existentialism William A. Earle 1919 – October 16, 1988United States Philosopher Also associated with Phenomenology, co-founded the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy with Wild and James M. Edie Ralph Ellison [ 2] May 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994United States Novelist Wrote Invisible Man , associate of Wright Frantz Fanon July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961France (Martinique), Algeria Philosopher, anthropologist, psychiatrist Also associated with Marxism Vilém Flusser May 12, 1920 – November 17, 1991Czechoslovakia Philosopher Also associated with phenomenology Benjamin Fondane November 14, 1898 – October 2 or 3, 1944Romania Author, poet, film director James Anthony Froude April 23, 1818 – October 20, 1894United Kingdom Historian Alberto Giacometti October 10, 1901 – January 11, 1966Switzerland Artist Known for his artistic style and the existential crisis within Juozas Girnius 1915 –1994Lithuania Philosopher Christian existentialist Fernando González April 24, 1895 – February 16, 1964Colombia Philosopher, Lawyer Works inspired Nadaism Lewis Gordon 1962 –United States Philosopher Also associated with Africana philosophy , Black existentialism , and phenomenology Martin Heidegger September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976Germany Philosopher Also associated with phenomenology and hermeneutics , associate of Arendt, rejected the label of "existentialist" Edmund Husserl April 8, 1859 – April 26, 1938Austria, Germany Philosopher Founder of Phenomenology Nae Ionescu June 16, 1890 – March 15, 1940Romania Philosopher, mathematician Eugène Ionesco November 26, 1909 – March 28, 1994Romania Playwright, essayist Foundational figure of absurdism William James [ 1] January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910United States Philosopher, psychologist Foundational figure of pragmatism Karl Jaspers February 23, 1883 – February 26, 1969Germany Philosopher Also associated with neo-Kantianism Franz Kafka July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924Austria-Hungary (Bohemian) Novelist Foundational figure of existentialism Walter Kaufmann July 1, 1921 – September 4, 1980United States Philosopher Translated Hegel, Goethe, Buber and Nietzsche's works into English Søren Kierkegaard May 5, 1813 – November 11, 1855Denmark Theologian, philosopher, author Foundational figure of existentialism, Christian existentialist Ladislav Klíma August 8, 1878 – April 19, 1928Czechoslovakia Philosopher, novelist Also associated with subjective idealism Emmanuel Levinas January 12, 1906 – December 25, 1995Lithuania, France Philosopher, theologian Studied with Heidegger and Husserl John Macquarrie June 27, 1919 – May 28, 2007United Kingdom Theologian Christian existentialist Vytautas Mačernis June 5, 1921 – October 7, 1944Lithuania Poet Naguib Mahfouz December 11, 1911 – August 30, 2006Egypt Novelist Gabriel Marcel December 7, 1889 – October 8, 1973France Theologian, philosopher Christian existentialist Maurice Merleau-Ponty March 14, 1908 – May 3, 1961France Philosopher Also associated with phenomenology, associate of de Beauvoir and Sartre Friedrich Nietzsche October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900Germany Philosopher Foundational figure of existentialism, also associated with (opposition to) nihilism José Ortega y Gasset May 9, 1883 – October 18, 1955Spain Philosopher Also associated with perspectivism , pragmatism, vitalism , and historicism Viktor Petrov 1894 –1969Ukraine Novelist, anthropologist Franz Rosenzweig December 26, 1887 – December 10, 1929Germany Theologian, philosopher Worked with Buber Jean-Paul Sartre June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980France Philosopher, novelist, activist Also associated with Marxism, co-founded Les Temps modernes with de Beauvoir and Camus Aous Shakra April 22, 1908 – April 1, 1992Palestine Politician, philosopher Lev Shestov January 31, 1866 – November 19, 1938Russia, France Philosopher Also associated with Irrationalism Joseph B. Soloveitchik February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993United States Rabbi Paul Tillich August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965United States, Germany Theologian, philosopher Christian existentialist Rick Turner 1942 –1978South Africa Philosopher Also associated with Marxism, studied with Sartre Miguel de Unamuno September 29, 1864 – December 31, 1936Spain Novelist, essayist, dramatist, philosopher John Daniel Wild April 10, 1902 – October 23, 1972United 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 Colin Wilson June 26, 1931 – December 5, 2013United Kingdom Author Wrote The Outsider Richard Wright September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960United 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 Peter Wessel Zapffe December 18, 1899 – October 12, 1990Norway Philosopher Founded biosophy Muhammad Iqbal [ 3] November 9, 1877 – 21 April 1938Pakistan Philosopher, writer, poet, politician National Poet of Pakistan Zachary A. Behlok October 3, 1996 – PresentUnited States Philosopher Also associated with Sociology 
