213
also made key contributions in
areas as diverse as perception,
ethics, and aesthetics, becoming
one of the greatest thinkers of the
20th century. Another, slightly
younger Viennese philosopher, Karl
Popper, took his cue from Einstein,
and strengthened the link between
scientific thinking and philosophy.
Meanwhile, in Germany,
philosophers rose to the challenge
posed by Nietzsche’s ideas with a
philosophy based on the experience
of the individual in a godless
universe: existentialism. Edmund
Husserl’s phenomenology (the study
of experience) laid the groundwork,
and this was carried forward by
Martin Heidegger, who was also
greatly influenced by the Danish
philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard.
Heidegger’s work, produced in the
1920s and 30s, was largely rejectedin the mid-20th century due to his
connections with the Nazi party
during World War II, but his works
were key to the development of
existentialism, and were important
to late 20th-century culture.Wars and revolutions
Philosophy was as affected by the
massive political upheavals of the
20th century as any other cultural
activity, but it also contributed to
the ideologies that shaped the
modern world. The revolution that
formed the Soviet Union in the
1920s had its roots in Marxism, a
19th-century political philosophy.
This theory became more prevalent
globally than any single religion,
dominating the policy of China’s
Communist Party until around
1982, and replacing traditional
philosophies across Asia.Liberal democracies in Europe
during the 1930s were threatened
by fascism, forcing many thinkers
to flee from the continent to Britain
and the US. Philosophers turned
their attention to left-wing or liberal
politics in reaction to the oppression
they experienced under totalitarian
regimes. World War II and the Cold
War that followed it colored the
moral philosophy of the second
half of the 20th century.
In France, existentialism was
made fashionable by Jean-Paul
Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and
Albert Camus, who were all
novelists. This trend was in keeping
with the French view of philosophy
as part of an essentially literary
culture. It was also fundamental
to the direction that continental
philosophy was to take in the last
decades of the 20th century. ■THE MODERN WORLD
1922
1923 1949
1927 1943
1929
1934
1939 – 45
Martin Heidegger
publishes Being and Time.Jean-Paul Sartre
becomes one of the most
important continental
philosophers with the
existentialist work Being
and Nothingness.The Wall Street
Crash leads to global
economic depression.Karl Popper publishes
The Logic of Scientific
Discovery, challenging the
idea that science always
proceeds from repeated
observations to theories.Psychoanalyst
Sigmund Freud
publishes The Ego
and the Id.The Communists
under Mao
Zedong proclaim
the People’s
Republic
of China.Josef Stalin is made
General Secretary
of the Communist
Party in Russia.
In World War II, the
deadliest war in
history, more than
60 million people die.