Benno Kerry (né Kohn; 11 December 1858 – 20 May 1889) was an Austrian philosopher.
Life
Kerry was born as Benno Kohn
[Rollinger 1999, p. 125.] in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. He studied under
Ernst Laas and
Otto Liebmann at the
University of Strassburg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
and from 1877/78 under
Franz Brentano
Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and former Catholic priest (withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters ...
at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
. In 1881 he obtained his doctorate with the dissertation ''Untersuchungen über das Causalproblem auf dem Boden einer Kritik der einschlägigen Lehren J. St. Mills'' ("Investigations concerning the problem of causality on the basis of a critique of the relevant doctrines of
John Stuart Mill"). In Vienna, as part of the
School of Brentano he befriended
Alois Höfler.
[Rollinger 1999, p. 126.]
In 1885 he obtained his habilitation as ''Privatdozent'' in Strasburg with ''Grundzüge einer Theorie der mathematischen und nicht-mathematischen Grenzbegriffe. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntnistheorie'' ("Foundations of a theory of mathematical and non-mathematical limit concepts. A contribution to epistemology") and became the assistant of the
neo-Kantian
In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thi ...
Wilhelm Windelband.
Kerry was influenced by
Bernard Bolzano[Rollinger 1999, p. 127.] and became an important conduit of his work. He was among the first students of Brentano (with
Meinong and
Höfler) to distinguish clearly between concept and object.
Kerry died on 20 May 1889 as a result of an ear infection.
Influence
Kerry exercised an influence not just within the circle of Brentano, especially on
Alois Höfler (for the concept "psychical labor"),
Edmund Husserl
, thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations)
, thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view
, thesis1_year = 1883
, thesis2_title ...
(in the ''
Philosophy of Arithmetic''),
[ and Kazimierz Twardowski,][Maria van der Schaar 2015, p. 53.] but also on Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic phil ...
.[ In fact, Frege conceived his paper "]Concept and Object In the philosophy of language, the distinction between concept and object is attributable to the German philosopher Gottlob Frege in 1892 (in his paper "Concept and Object"; German: "Ueber Begriff und Gegenstand").
Overview
According to Frege, any ...
" as a reply to Kerry's criticisms. Furthermore he was in close contact with Georg Cantor
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( , ; – January 6, 1918) was a German mathematician. He played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of ...
and it is thanks to his review of the ''Mannigfaltigkeitslehre'' that Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
came to know of the work of Cantor.
Kerry and Frege
Kerry (in particular in his fourth article) criticized Frege for having confused concept and object in his ''Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik
''The Foundations of Arithmetic'' (german: Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik) is a book by Gottlob Frege, published in 1884, which investigates the Philosophy, philosophical foundations of arithmetic. Frege refutes other theories of number and develop ...
'' and in ''Begriffsschrift
''Begriffsschrift'' (German for, roughly, "concept-script") is a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and the formal system set out in that book.
''Begriffsschrift'' is usually translated as ''concept writing'' or ''concept notatio ...
''. Frege responded to a number of aspects of this critique in 1892 with the paper "Begriff und Gegenstand" ("Concept and Object"). The controversy became known as the "concept ''horse'' problem"[Ian Proops]
"What is Frege's "Concept Horse" problem?"
or "Kerry's paradox."[Tom Ricketts, Michael Potter 2010, p. 179.]
Works
* ''Untersuchungen über das Causalproblem auf dem Boden einer Kritik der einschlägigen Lehren J. St. Mills'' 1881.
* ''Grundzüge einer Theorie der mathematischen und nicht-mathematischen Grenzbegriffe. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntnistheorie'' (unpublished ''Habilitationsschrift'')
* Review of "Paul du Bois-Reymond ''Allgemeine Functionentheorie. Erster Theil'' Tübingen 1882" in ''Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie'', 9, 1885, pp. 245–255.
* "Ueber G. Cantor's Mannigfaltigkeitsuntersuchungen" in ''Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie'', 9 (1885), 191–232.
* "Ueber