Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint
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''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' (german: Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) (1874; second edition 1924) is an 1874 book by the Austrian philosopher
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(; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and former Catholic priest (withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters of F ...
, in which the author argues that the goal of psychology should be to establish exact laws. Brentano's best known book, it established his reputation as a philosopher, helped to establish
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
as a scientific discipline, and influenced
Husserlian phenomenology Phenomenology (from Greek φαινόμενον, ''phainómenon'' "that which appears" and λόγος, ''lógos'' "study") is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded i ...
,
analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
,
gestalt psychology Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward T ...
, and the philosopher
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' ...
's theory of objects. It has been called Brentano's greatest work, and it has been compared to the physician
Wilhelm Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and ...
's ''Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie'' and the ''Project for a Scientific Psychology'' of
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 ...
, the founder of
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
.


Summary

Discussing the philosopher
Eduard von Hartmann Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, was a German philosopher, independent scholar and author of ''Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). His notable ideas include the theory of the Unconscious and a pessimistic interpretation of the "best of all ...
's ''
Philosophy of the Unconscious ''Philosophy of the Unconscious: Speculative Results According to the Induction Method of the Physical Sciences'' (german: Philosophie des Unbewussten) is an 1869 book by the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann. The culmination of the speculations and ...
'' (1869), Brentano comments that Hartmann "uses the term 'consciousness' to refer to something different from what we do. He defines consciousness as 'the emancipation of the idea from the will...and the opposition of the will to this emancipation,' and as 'the bewilderment of the will over the ''existence'' of the idea, which existence the will does not want but which, nevertheless, is sensibly present.' Brentano suggests that Hartmann's definition of consciousness perhaps refers to "something purely imaginary", and certainly does not agree with Brentano's definition.


Background and publication history

Brentano was at work on ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' in 1873, while travelling in Europe after leaving the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and resigning from his position at the University of
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 ...
. He completed the first two books of the work in March 1874. Brentano originally intended to produce a large work consisting of six books, the first five of which would cover psychology as a science, mental phenomena in general, and their three basic classes, while the sixth would deal with the mind-body problem, the soul, and immortality. However, Brentano was ill with smallpox after publishing the first two books. The work remained incomplete. In 1911, Brentano published book two of ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' under the new title ''Von der Klassifikation der psychischen Phänomene'', with the addition of remarks explaining his later views, where they differed from those he held in 1874. ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' was first published as ''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte'', but subsequent editions were published as ''Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt'', which is the more commonly cited name. The first edition was designated Volume 1, but this was also abandoned in later editions. In 1924, after Brentano's death, the book was published in a new edition, which included explanatory notes by the philosopher
Oskar Kraus Oskar Kraus (24 July 1872 – 26 September 1942) was a Czech philosopher and jurist. Life Oskar Kraus, who converted from the Jewish to the Protestant faith, was born in Prague, the son of Hermann Kraus and Clara Reitler-Eidlitz. In 1899 he mar ...
.


Reception

''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' is Brentano's best-known book, and much has been written about its "intentionality passage". Brentano reintroduced the concept of intentionality into the
philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are addre ...
. However, the philosopher
Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 t ...
describes the intentionality passage of ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' as both obscure and hesitant. Scruton believes that the obscurity of the passage is "compounded by Brentano's description of intentionality as the mark which distinguishes mental ''phenomena'' from physical ''phenomena'', the latter being described, not as objective features of the natural world, but as appearances." According to Scruton, while in later editions of ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' Brentano described intentionality as a property of mental activity, and characterized it as a kind of "mental reference", Brentano never makes clear precisely what kind of property he believes it to be anywhere in his writings. Scruton has commented that none of the volumes of ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' "fulfil the promise made in the book's title", adding that Brentano eventually came to doubt that an empirical science of the mental is likely to be invented. ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' has been compared to Sigmund Freud's early metapsychology, especially as expressed in his ''Project for a Scientific Psychology''. The psychologist
Paul Vitz Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
, who calls ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' Brentano's greatest work, notes that while Brentano rejected the unconscious, "his answer followed largely from his definitions of consciousness and unconsciousness, and the evidence subsequently available to Freud did not, of course, figure in Brentano's thought." The philosopher
Clark Glymour Clark N. Glymour (born 1942) is the Alumni University Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Work Glymou ...
writes that ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' "gave Freud one vision of what psychology should seek to know, and of what methods it should use." According to Glymour, Brentano believed that "psychology should have exact laws, and that the goal of psychology should be to find such laws...Brentano held that there are exact laws that refer only to the mental, and do not need to appeal to physical circumstances." In Glymour's view, while ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' "contains lively criticism", Brentano nevertheless "had no laws of any interest to propose" and when Brentano tries to produce results from his method "the product is deadly dull and nearly vacuous." Glymour considers Brentano's efforts "lame" in comparison to the work of the physician
Carl Wernicke Carl (or Karl) Wernicke (; ; 15 May 1848 – 15 June 1905) was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for his influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and also t ...
, who produced a new analysis of the capacity for language. The philosopher Barry Smith writes that Brentano's thesis about intentionality has "proved to be one of the most influential in all of contemporary philosophy. It gave rise to Husserlian phenomenology, but it also lies at the root of much of the thinking of analytic philosophers on meaning and reference and on the relations of language and mind. In addition, the notion of intentionality, and Brentano's use of this notion as a criterion for the demarcation of the psychological realm, pervades much contemporary philosophizing within the realm of cognitive science." According to the philosopher Peter Simons, ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' "forged Franz Brentano's reputation and it remains his most important and influential single work...it helped to establish psychology as a scientific discipline in its own right. Through Brentano's illustrious circle of students it exerted a wide influence on philosophy and psychology, especially in Austria, Germany, Poland, and Italy." Simons compares the influence of Brentano's work to that of Wilhelm Wundt's ''Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie'', also published in 1874. Simons lists gestalt psychology and Alexius Meinong's theory of objects as additional developments related to Brentano's work, noting that "The course of the ''Psychologys influence has yet to be fully run." Simons comments that Kraus's notes on ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' "are frequently shrill and intrusive." Simons writes that while passages in chapter one "clearly accord mental phenomena an epistemological advantage over physical phenomena", Kraus "cannot forbear intervening several times to explain how Brentano expresses himself misleadingly, how this conflicts with other things he says elsewhere, and so on." Simons believes that the purpose of Kraus's notes is to harmonize Brentano's views in ''Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'' with views he adopted subsequently.


References


Bibliography

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External links


Text of Brentano's "Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint", English edition 1973
1874 non-fiction books Books about the unconscious mind Books by Franz Brentano Cognitive science literature Contemporary philosophical literature German non-fiction books Works about philosophy of psychology