Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, and former

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

(withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters of Faith) whose work strongly influenced not only students

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 ...

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

Tomáš Masaryk Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 185014 September 1937) was a Czechoslovak politician, statesman, sociologist, and philosopher. Until 1914, he advocated restructuring the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a federal state. With the help of ...

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...

Alexius Meinong Alexius Meinong Ritter von Handschuchsheim (17 July 1853 – 27 November 1920) was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value. Life Alexius Meinong ...

Carl Stumpf Carl Stumpf (; 21 April 1848 – 25 December 1936) was a German philosopher, psychologist and musicologist. He is noted for founding the Berlin School of Experimental Psychology. He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg ...

Anton Marty Martin Anton Maurus Marty (; 18 October 18471 October 1914) was a Swiss-born Austrian philosopher and Catholic priest. He specialized in philosophy of language, philosophy of psychology and ontology. Biography Marty was a student and follower ...

Kazimierz Twardowski Kazimierz Jerzy Skrzypna-Twardowski (20 October 1866 – 11 February 1938) was a Polish philosopher, psychologist, logician, and rector of the Lwów University. He was initially affiliated with Alexius Meinong's Graz School of object theory. ...

, and

Christian von Ehrenfels Christian von Ehrenfels (also ''Maria Christian Julius Leopold Freiherr von Ehrenfels''; 20 June 1859 – 8 September 1932) was an Austrian philosopher, and is known as one of the founders and precursors of Gestalt psychology. Christian von Eh ...

, but many others whose work would follow and make use of his original ideas and concepts.

Life

Brentano was born at , near

Boppard Boppard (), formerly also spelled Boppart, is a town and municipality (since the 1976 inclusion of 9 neighbouring villages, ''Ortsbezirken'') in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, lying in the Rhine Gorge, a UNE ...

. He was son of

Christian Brentano Christian Brentano (24 January 1784, Frankfurt – 27 October 1851, Frankfurt) was a German writer and Catholic publicist. He was the brother of Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim, famous German writers of the Romantic school, and the father ...

, brother of

Lujo Brentano Lujo Brentano (; ; 18 December 1844 – 9 September 1931) was an eminent German economist and social reformer. Biography Lujo Brentano, born in Aschaffenburg into a distinguished German Catholic intellectual family (originally of Italian desce ...

, and paternal nephew of

Clemens Brentano Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano (also Klemens; pseudonym: Clemens Maria Brentano ; ; 9 September 1778 – 28 July 1842) was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz ...

and

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

, and of

Gunda ''Gunda'' is a genus of moths of the family Bombycidae (silk moths). The genus was erected by Francis Walker in 1862. It is primarily an Oriental genus, found in India, China and South-east Asia. Species *''Gunda aroa'' Bethune-Baker, 1904 *''G ...

(née Brentano) and

Friedrich von Savigny Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian. Early life and education Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cas ...

. He studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the universities of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(with Adolf Trendelenburg) and

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

. He had a special interest in

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

and

scholastic philosophy Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translate ...

. He wrote his dissertation in 1862 at

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

under the title ''Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles'' (''On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle''). His thesis advisor was

Franz Jakob Clemens Franz Jacob Clemens (4 October 1815 – 24 February 1862) was a German Roman Catholic Church, Catholic philosopher, a layman who defended the Catholic Church even on theological questions. Life Clemens was born in Koblenz. After spending some t ...

. Subsequently, he began to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and entered the seminary in Munich and then Würzburg. He was ordained a Catholic priest on 6 August 1864. In 1866 he defended his

habilitation thesis Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

, ''Die Psychologie des Aristoteles, insbesondere seine Lehre vom Nous Poietikos'' (''The Psychology of Aristotle, in Particular His Doctrine of the Active Intellect'', published 1867), and began to lecture at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. His students in this period included, among others,

and

. Between 1870 and 1873, Brentano was heavily involved in the debate on

papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ''ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the aposto ...

in matters of Faith. A strong opponent of such

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

, he eventually gave up his priesthood and his tenure in 1873. He remained, however, deeply religious and dealt with the topic of the existence of God in lectures given at the Universities of Würzburg and Vienna. In 1874 Brentano published his major work, ''

Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' (german: Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) (1874; second edition 1924) is an 1874 book by the Austrian philosopher Franz Brentano, in which the author argues that the goal of psychology should be ...

''. From 1874 to 1895 he taught 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 histor ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. Among his students were

, and

and many others (see

School of Brentano The School of Brentano was a group of philosophers and psychologists who studied with Franz Brentano and were essentially influenced by him. While it was never a school in the traditional sense, Brentano tried to maintain some cohesion in the schoo ...

for more details). While he began his career as a full ordinary professor, he was forced to give up both his Austrian citizenship and his professorship in 1880 in order to marry Ida Lieben (Austro-Hungarian law denied matrimony to persons who had been ordained priests even if they later had resigned from priesthood), but he was permitted to stay at the university only as a ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

''. After the departure of Twardowski back to Lwów and the death of his wife in 1894, Brentano retired and moved to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in 1896, where he married his second wife, Emilie Ruprecht, in 1897. He transferred to

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

at the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, where he died in 1917.

Work

Intentionality

Brentano is best known for his reintroduction of the concept of intentionality—a concept derived from

—to

contemporary philosophy Contemporary philosophy is the present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning at the early 20th century with the increasing professionalization of the discipline and the rise of analytic and continental philosophy. The phrase "c ...

in his lectures and in his work ''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt'' (''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint''). While often simplistically summarised as "aboutness" or the relationship between mental acts and the external world, Brentano defined it as the main characteristic of ''mental phenomena'', by which they could be distinguished from ''physical phenomena''. Every mental phenomenon, every psychological act has content, is directed at an object (the '' intentional object''). Every belief, desire etc. has an object that they are about: the believed, the desired. Brentano used the expression "intentional inexistence" to indicate the status of the objects of thought in the mind. The property of being intentional, of having an intentional object, was the key feature to distinguish psychological phenomena and physical phenomena, because, as Brentano defined it, physical phenomena lacked the ability to generate ''original intentionality'', and could only facilitate an intentional relationship in a second-hand manner, which he labeled ''derived intentionality''. Brentano introduced a distinction between genetic psychology (''genetische Psychologie'') and descriptive psychology (''beschreibende'' or ''deskriptive Psychologie''): in his terminology, genetic psychology is the study of psychological phenomena from a third-person point of view, which involves the use of empirical experiments (satisfying, thus, the scientific standards we nowadays expect of an empirical science). (This concept is roughly equivalent to what is now called empirical psychology,Dale Jacquette (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Brentano'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 67. cognitive science, or "

heterophenomenology In the thought of the philosopher Daniel Dennett, heterophenomenology (" phenomenology ''of another'', not oneself") is an explicitly third-person, scientific approach to the study of consciousness and other mental phenomena. It consists of applyi ...

", an explicitly third-person, scientific approach to the study of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

.) The aim of descriptive psychology, on the other hand, is to describe consciousness from a first-person point of view. The latter approach was further developed by Husserl and the phenomenological tradition.

Theory of perception

He is also well known for claiming that ''Wahrnehmung ist Falschnehmung'' ('perception is misconception') that is to say perception is erroneous. In fact he maintained that external,

sensory perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

could not tell us anything about the ''de facto'' existence of the perceived world, which could simply be illusion. However, we can be absolutely sure of our internal perception. When I hear a tone, I cannot be completely sure that there is a tone in the real world, but I am absolutely certain that I do hear. This awareness, of the fact that I hear, is called internal perception. External perception, sensory perception, can only yield hypotheses about the perceived world, but not truth. Hence he and many of his pupils (in particular

and

) thought that the natural sciences could only yield hypotheses and never universal, absolute truths as in pure

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. However, in a reprinting of his ''Psychologie vom Empirischen Standpunkte'' (''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint''), he recanted this previous view. He attempted to do so without reworking the previous arguments within that work but it has been said that he was wholly unsuccessful. The new view states that when we hear a sound, we hear something from the external world; there are no physical phenomena of internal perception.

Theory of judgment

Brentano has a theory of judgment which is different from what is currently the predominant (

Fregean 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 phi ...

) view. At the centre of Brentano's theory of judgment lies the idea that a judgment depends on having a

presentation A presentation conveys information from a speaker to an audience. Presentations are typically demonstrations, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, build goodwill, or present a new idea/product. Presenta ...

, but this presentation does not have to be predicated. Even stronger: Brentano thought that predication is not even necessary for judgment, because there are judgments without a predicational content. Another fundamental aspect of his theory is that judgments are always

existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

. This so-called existential claim implies that when someone is judging that S is P he/she is judging that some S that is P exists. (Note that Brentano denied the idea that all judgments are of the form: S is P nd all other kinds of judgment which combine presentations Brentano argued that there are also judgments arising from a single presentation, e.g. “the planet Mars exists” has only one presentation.) In Brentano's own symbols, a judgment is always of the form: ‘+A’ (A exists) or ‘–A’ (A does not exist). Combined with the third fundamental claim of Brentano, the idea that all judgments are either positive (judging that A exists) or negative (judging that A does not exist), we have a complete picture of Brentano's theory of judgment. So, imagine that you doubt whether midgets exist. At that point you have a presentation of midgets in your mind. When you judge that midgets do not exist, then you are judging that the presentation you have does not present something that exists. You do not have to utter that in words or otherwise predicate that judgment. The whole judgment takes place in the denial (or approval) of the existence of the presentation you have. The problem of Brentano's theory of judgment is not the idea that all judgments are existential judgments (though it is sometimes a very complex enterprise to transform an ordinary judgment into an existential one), the real problem is that Brentano made no distinction between

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

and presentation. A presentation exists as an object in your mind. So you cannot really judge that A does not exist, because if you do so you also judge that the presentation is not there (which is impossible, according to Brentano's idea that all judgments have the object which is judged as presentation).

acknowledged this problem and solved it by denying that the object is equal to the presentation. This is actually only a change within Brentano's theory of perception, but has a welcome consequence for the theory of judgment, viz. that you can have a presentation (which exists) but at the same time judge that the object does not exist.

Legacy

The young

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

was very much inspired by Brentano's early work ''On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle''. Brentano's focus on conscious (or phenomenal) intentionality was inherited by Carl Stumpf's

Berlin School of experimental psychology The Berlin School of Experimental Psychology is founded by Carl Stumpf, a pupil of Franz Brentano and Hermann Lotze and a professor at the University of Berlin. It adhered to the method of experimental phenomenology, which understood it as the scien ...

, Anton Marty's

Prague School The Prague school or Prague linguistic circle is a language and literature society. It started in 1926 as a group of linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis and ...

of linguistics, Alexius Meinong's

Graz School The Graz School (german: Grazer Schule), also Meinong's School, of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz Psychological ...

of experimental psychology, Kazimierz Twardowski's Lwów School of philosophy, and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

. Brentano's work also influenced

George Stout George Frederick Stout (; 1860–1944), usually cited as G. F. Stout, was a leading English philosopher and psychologist. Biography Born in South Shields on 6 January 1860, Stout studied psychology at the University of Cambridge under J ...

,Liliana Albertazzi, ''Immanent Realism: An Introduction to Brentano'', Springer, 2006, p. 321. the teacher of

G. E. Moore George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...

and

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, ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Bibliography

;Major works by Brentano in German * (1862) ''On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle'' (''Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles'' (

doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

))
online
* (1867) ''The Psychology of Aristotle'' (''Die Psychologie des Aristoteles, insbesondere seine Lehre vom Nous Poietikos'' (

written in 1865/66))
online
* (1874) ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' (''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt'')
Online
** (1924–25) ''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt.'' Ed. Oskar Kraus, 2 vols. Leipzig: Meiner. Franz Brentano Archiv Graz
/ref> * (1876) ''Was für ein Philosoph manchmal Epoche macht'' (a work against

Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neop ...

)
Online
* (1889) ''The Origin of our Knowledge of Right and Wrong'' (''Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis'')
1902 English edition online
* (1911) ''Aristotle and his World View'' (''Aristoteles und seine Weltanschauung'') * (1911) ''The Classification of Mental Phenomena'' (''Von der Klassifikation der psychischen Phänomene'') * (1930) ''The True and the Evident'' (''Wahrheit und Evidenz'') * (1976) ''Philosophical Investigations on Space, Time and Phenomena'' (''Philosophische Untersuchungen zu Raum, Zeit und Kontinuum'') * (1982) ''Descriptive Psychology'' (''Deskriptive Psychologie'') ;''Collected Works'' * ''Sämtliche veröffentlichte Schriften in zehn Bänden'' (''Collected Works in Ten Volumes'', edited by Arkadiusz Chrudzimski and Thomas Binder), Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag (now Walter de Gruyter). ** 1. ''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte — Von der Klassifikation der psychischen Phänomene'' (2008) ** 2. ''Untersuchungen zur Sinnespsychologie'' (2009) ** 3. ''Schriften zur Ethik und Ästhetik'' (2010) ** 4. ''Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles'' (2014)

References

External links

Franz Brentano website

"Franz Brentano and Cornelio Fabro. A forgotten chapter of the Brentanian reception"
* *

– Contains a list of the English translations of Brentano's works * *
The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong by Franz Brentano
at Project Gutenberg
"Franz Brentano Archiv" (Franz Brentano Papers) at Graz University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brentano, Franz 1853 births 1917 deaths 19th-century essayists 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German philosophers 20th-century essayists 20th-century German male writers 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century male writers Aristotelian philosophers Austrian philosophers Catholic philosophers German consciousness researchers and theorists Continental philosophers Empiricists Epistemologists German male essayists German male non-fiction writers German people of Italian descent German psychologists German Roman Catholics Historians of philosophy Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Metaphysicians Ontologists People from Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis People from the Rhine Province Phenomenologists Philosophers of mind Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of religion Philosophers of science Philosophy academics University of Münster alumni Academics of the University of Vienna University of Würzburg alumni University of Würzburg faculty