Except a few materialists like Epicurus and Democritus all of the ancient philosophers in the East and West believed in the afterlife. As for the rationalists among Western philosophers who prepared the ground for the intellectual enlightenment after the Middle Ages most of them also believed in the Resurrection and afterlife.

Among them. Descartes argued convincingly for the immortality of the human soul and analyzed the issues pertaining to the afterlife. Leibniz and Espinoza also believed in another life. The former resembled Plato in that corresponding to Plato's 'ideas'; he spoke of 'monads' as the immaterial parts of beings. He asserted that monads must develop infinitely. However this development is impossible in this world because time is limited. Therefore there must be an eternal world where monads can realize their infinite development. Espinoza was a pantheist. He believed in an eternal collective life of beings.

Besides the philosophers mentioned. Pascal and Bergson also believed in afterlife.