Franz Brentano
What marks the mind is that every mental act is directed at something – you always think of, want or fear something.
Placement
Intentionality: every mental act is directed at an object – this distinguishes the mental from the physical.
Key ideas
- Intentionality
- Descriptive psychology
Teachers: Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
Students: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Alexius Meinong, Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Christian von Ehrenfels, Kazimierz Twardowski
Influence
Influenced by 4
Aristotle
influenced by
Brentano began with Aristotle: his dissertation on the manifold senses of being (1862) and Die Psychologie des Aristoteles (1867) prepared his descriptive psychology of intentional acts. F. Brentano, Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles (1862); Die Psychologie des Aristoteles (1867); SEP “Franz Brentano”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Thomas Aquinas
influenced by
Brentano introduced intentional inexistence in Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874) with reference to the Scholastics, citing Aquinas’s view that the thing thought is intentionally in the thinker. F. Brentano, Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt (1874); SEP “Franz Brentano”; SEP “Thomas Aquinas”
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Auguste Comte
influenced by
Brentano shared Comte’s demand that philosophy use the method of natural science (‘Auguste Comte und die positive Philosophie’, 1869), but defended inner perception against him (1874). F. Brentano, “Auguste Comte und die positive Philosophie” (1869), in Die vier Phasen der Philosophie (1926); Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt (1874); SEP “Franz Brentano”
Evidence: AI draft
Auguste Comte › 1798–1857
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg studied with
studied with ✓
Brentano studied Aristotle with Trendelenburg in Berlin. SEP “Franz Brentano” (W. Huemer), §1
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg › 1802–1872
Influenced 7
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk taught
taught ✓
Masaryk studied at the University of Vienna from 1872 to 1876, at first with Robert Zimmermann and Theodor Gomperz and from his fourth semester also with Brentano; he took his doctorate in 1876 with Das Wesen der Seele bei Plato and habilitated in 1879 with his study of suicide (printed 1881). R. Wellek, “Masaryk, Tomáš Garrigue (1850–1937)”, in P. Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967); Office of the President of the Czech Republic, “T. G. Masaryk – Life and Works in Dates” (hrad.cz)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk › 1850–1937
Alexius Meinong taught
taught ✓
Meinong turned from history to philosophy under Brentano in Vienna (1875–78), who directed him to Hume; he habilitated there in 1878 with a study of Hume’s nominalism (Hume-Studien I, 1877). SEP “Alexius Meinong”; A. Meinong, “Selbstdarstellung” (1921)
Alexius Meinong › 1853–1920
Sigmund Freud taught
taught ✓
As a medical student Freud attended five of Brentano’s lecture courses and seminars in Vienna (1874–76), the only philosophy he studied; his letters to Eduard Silberstein report personal visits to Brentano. S. Freud, Jugendbriefe an Eduard Silberstein 1871–1881, ed. W. Boehlich (1989); P. Merlan, “Brentano and Freud”, Journal of the History of Ideas 6 (1945)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Sigmund Freud › 1856–1939
Christian von Ehrenfels taught
taught ✓
Ehrenfels attended Brentano’s lectures in Vienna and studied with Meinong, whom he followed to Graz for his doctorate (1885); he habilitated in Vienna in 1888. B. Smith, Austrian Philosophy: The Legacy of Franz Brentano (1994)
Christian von Ehrenfels › 1859–1932
Edmund Husserl taught
taught ✓
After his doctorate in mathematics, Husserl attended Brentano’s lectures in Vienna from 1884 to 1886, which decided him for philosophy; Brentano recommended him to his pupil Carl Stumpf in Halle, where Husserl habilitated (1887). SEP “Edmund Husserl”; E. Husserl, “Erinnerungen an Franz Brentano”, in O. Kraus, Franz Brentano (1919)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Edmund Husserl › 1859–1938
Kazimierz Twardowski taught
taught ✓
Twardowski enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1885 and from the following year studied with Brentano; since Brentano had resigned his chair, his official doctoral supervisor (1891, on Descartes) was Robert Zimmermann. SEP “Kazimierz Twardowski”
Kazimierz Twardowski › 1866–1938
Martin Heidegger
influenced ✓
Heidegger said Brentano’s dissertation on the senses of being in Aristotle (1862), read from 1907, set him the question of being (‘Mein Weg in die Phänomenologie’, 1963). M. Heidegger, “Mein Weg in die Phänomenologie” (1963), in Zur Sache des Denkens (1969); F. Brentano, Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles (1862); SEP “Martin Heidegger”
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976
Works
Intentionality as the mark of the mental.
Position
Brentano wanted to make psychology a rigorous science based on careful description of experience. His decisive insight was that every mental act is directed at something: in perceiving something is perceived, in loving something is loved, in judging something is affirmed or denied. This “intentional inexistence” of an object, he argued, is the mark that distinguishes the mental from the physical. He also developed a theory of judgment and an ethics grounded in correct love and hatred. Through his students the concept of intentionality became the starting point of phenomenology, and it remains central in today’s philosophy of mind.
Life & context
Brentano, a nephew of the poet Clemens Brentano, was ordained a Catholic priest but left the priesthood in protest against the dogma of papal infallibility. He taught in Würzburg and from 1874 in Vienna, where his students included Husserl, Meinong and Twardowski, and Freud attended his lectures. Having lost his chair after marrying, he spent his last decades in Florence and Zurich.
Further main works
- On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle (1862)
- The Origin of Our Knowledge of Right and Wrong (1889)
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