Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a
German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the
Continental tradition and philosophical
hermeneutics, with a growing influence on
Analytic philosophy. According to the
IEP, he is "widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century." Heidegger is best known for his contributions to
Phenomenology and
Existentialism, though as the
SEP cautions, "his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification."