Many contemporary philosophers have contributed to anticipation, albeit under different denominations and within different frameworks. A sample of the contributions to the understanding of the future developed by twentieth-century philosophers – namely those of Bergson, Husserl, Mead, Whitehead, Peirce, Jonas, Heidegger, and Deleuze – are summarily presented. Then I will focus on the ideas of the two figures that, to my knowledge, have gone deeper and farther than any other, namely Ernst Bloch and Nicolai Hartmann. Finally, the connection between anticipation and ethics are discussed.