Franz Brentano is one of the founding fathers of twentieth century philosophy, celebrated for introducing the concept of intentionality to philosophy as well as making significant contributions to ethics and logic. His work exerted great influence on major philosophers such as Edmund Husserl, but also philosophers travelling in the opposite direction, such Gottlob Frege. He counted Sigmund Freud amongst his students and Freud expressed great admiration for his teacher in several letters.
Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint is Brentano’s most important and brilliant work. It helped to establish psychology as a scientific discipline, but did so in a highly original and distinctive manner by arguing for a form of introspectionism. Brentano argued that consciousness is always unified and that the hallmark of the mind is that one’s thoughts are always directed towards something – his famous theory of ‘intentionality’ – arguments that have deep implications not just for philosophy but psychology, cognitive science and consciousness studies.
With a new foreword by Tim Crane.
Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Preface to the English Edition Foreword to the 1911 Edition, Franz Brentano Foreword to the 1874 Edition, Franz Brentano Book One: Psychology as a Science 1. The Concept and Purpose of Psychology 2. Psychological Method with Special Reference to its Experiential Basis 3. Further Investigations Concerning Psychological Method. Induction of the Fundamental Laws of Psychology 4. Further Investigations Concerning Psychological Method. The Inexact Character of its Highest Laws. Deduction and Verification Book Two : Mental Phenomena in General 1. The Distinction between Mental and Physical Phenomena 2. Inner Consciousness 3. Further Consideration Regarding Inner Consciousness 4. On the Unity of Consciousness 5. A Survey of the Principal Attempts to Classify Mental Phenomena 6. Classification of Mental Activities into Presentations, Judgements and Phenomena of Love and Hate 7. Presentation and Judgement: Two Different Fundamental Classes 8. Feeling and Will United into a Single Fundamental Class 8. Comparison of the Three Basic Classes with the Threefold Phenomena of Inner Consciousness. Determination of Their Natural Order. Appendix to The Classification of Mental Phenomena Additional Essays from Brentano’s Nachlass Concerning Intuitions, Concepts and Objects of Reason Index
Biography
Franz Brentano (1838-1917) was a pivotal figure in the development of twentieth century philosophy. His work influenced philosophers as diverse as Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology and the philosopher and logician Gottlob Frege.
