Lebensphilosophie ("philosophy of life") is a philosophical school of thought which emphasises the
meaning, value and purpose of life as the foremost focus of philosophy. Inspired by the critique of
rationalism in the works of
Arthur Schopenhauer,
Søren Kierkegaard, and
Friedrich Nietzsche, it emerged in 19th-century Germany as a reaction to the rise of
positivism and the theoretical focus prominent in much of post-Kantian philosophy.