1940 in philosophy

Events

• July - Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans.
• September 26 or 27 – Walter Benjamin, literary critic and writer, died at the age of 48 when he committed suicide in an effort to avoid capture by the Gestapo.

Publications

• G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
• Nicolai Hartmann, Der Aufbau der realen Welt
• Arnold Gehlen, ''Man: His Nature and Place in the World''

Births

• May 7 - Michael Allen Fox
• June 21 - Michael Ruse
• July 26 - Jean-Luc Nancy
• August 20 - Jacques Bouveresse
• November 13 - Saul Kripke
• November 27 - Bruce Lee
• T. M. Scanlon
• Tu Weiming
• Fatema Mernissi
• Michael Jackson

Deaths

• March 1 - A. H. Tammsaare
• May 14 - Emma Goldman
• August 21 - Leon Trotsky
• September 26 - Walter Benjamin ''see Events section above''