PHILOSOPHERS from Sweden

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swedish Philosophers of all time. This list of famous Swedish Philosophers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 - 1772)

With an HPI of 71.10, Emanuel Swedenborg is the most famous Swedish Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 68 different languages on wikipedia.

Emanuel Swedenborg (, Swedish: [ˈsvêːdɛnˌbɔrj] ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 1688 – 29 March 1772) was a Swedish Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758). Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, notably on Easter Weekend, on 6 April 1744. His experiences culminated in a "spiritual awakening" in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity. According to The Heavenly Doctrine, the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on, he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons and other spirits, and that the Last Judgment had already occurred in 1757, the year before the 1758 publication of De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti (English: Concerning the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine). Over the last 28 years of his life, Swedenborg wrote 18 published theological works—and several more that remained unpublished. He termed himself a "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ" in True Christian Religion, which he published himself. Some followers of The Heavenly Doctrine believe that of his theological works, only those that were published by Swedenborg himself are fully divinely inspired. Others have regarded all Swedenborg's theological works as equally inspired, saying for example that the fact that some works were "not written out in a final edited form for publication does not make a single statement less trustworthy than the statements in any of the other works". The New Church, also known as Swedenborgianism, is a Restorationist denomination of Christianity originally founded in 1787 and comprising several historically related Christian churches that revere Swedenborg's writings as revelation.

2. Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806 - 1881)

With an HPI of 58.09, Johan Vilhelm Snellman is the 2nd most famous Swedish Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Johan Vilhelm Snellman (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjuːhɑn ˈvilːhelm ˈsnelːmɑn] ; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot and J. L. Runeberg.

3. Lars Gustafsson (1936 - 2016)

With an HPI of 52.67, Lars Gustafsson is the 3rd most famous Swedish Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Lars Erik Einar Gustafsson (17 May 1936 – 3 April 2016) was a Swedish poet, novelist, and scholar. Among his awards were the Gerard-Bonnier-Preis in 2006, the Goethe Medal in 2009, the Thomas Mann Prize in 2015, and the International Nonino Prize in Italy in 2016.

4. Caspar Bartholin the Elder (1585 - 1629)

With an HPI of 50.62, Caspar Bartholin the Elder is the 4th most famous Swedish Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Caspar Bartholin the Elder (; 12 February 1585 – 13 July 1629) was a Danish physician, scientist and theologian.

5. Sara Danius (1962 - 2019)

With an HPI of 45.66, Sara Danius is the 5th most famous Swedish Philosopher.  Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Sara Maria Danius (5 April 1962 – 12 October 2019) was a Swedish literary critic and philosopher, and a scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius was professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University, docent of literature at Uppsala University and professor in literary science at Stockholm University. Danius was a member of the Swedish Academy and its first female permanent secretary. She was one of the central figures in the 2018 controversies resulting in the cancellation of the Nobel Prize in Literature that year and the following restructuring of the academy.

6. Nick Bostrom (b. 1973)

With an HPI of 45.44, Nick Bostrom is the 6th most famous Swedish Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Nick Bostrom ( BOST-rəm; Swedish: Niklas Boström [ˈnɪ̌kːlas ˈbûːstrœm]; born 10 March 1973) is a philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. He was the founding director of the now dissolved Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford and is now Principal Researcher at the Macrostrategy Research Initiative. Bostrom is the author of Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002), Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) and Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (2024). Bostrom believes that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may lead to superintelligence, which he defines as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest". He views this as a major source of opportunities and existential risks.