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Born in Marienberg,
Germany on January 16, 1838, Franz Brentano is a
philosopher best known for his doctrine of
intentionality, influencing students such as Sigmund
Freud, Alexius Meinong and Carl Stumpf. Although Brentano
helped shape movements of thought ranging from Gestalt
Psychology to the School of
‘Gegenstandstheorie’, his career was plagued
with setbacks due in part to resignation from priesthood.
Brentano became a Roman Catholic priest in 1864, and
lectured at the University of Würzburg until
religious doubts about the dogma of papal infallibility
led him to leave Würzburg and priesthood in 1873. He
went to Vienna in 1874 as Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Vienna. Problems ensued when he decided to
marry in 1880 and the Austrian authorities refused to
accept his resignation from priesthood, thus denying him
consent to marry. This led to his forced resignation from
the University. Although he moved to Leipzig to live with
his wife, he returned to Vienna able only to take a post
as Privatdozent, or unsalaried lecturer. He remained
there until 1895, gaining great popularity. Because he
was denied a professorship by the Austrian Emperor, his
influence in Vienna was limited to his writings and
lectures, both of which had a significant influence,
although not nearly to the extent had he been able to
work intensively with his students and mentor them in
their careers.
Aristotle was
instrumental in both Brentano’s psychological and
ontological work. In his book, "Psychology from an
Empirical Standpoint," Brentano incorporated a more
empirical and scientific foundation to both philosophy
and psychology. As with other philosophical thinkers in
Vienna at this time, Brentano denounced metaphysical
studies, espousing a scientific realism in his
ontological ideas. It was out of his early empirical work
in psychology that he developed his doctrine of
intentionality. This could be called a science of the
soul, whereby he developed a theory that was directed
toward the fundamental acts of one’s mental
processes and the relationships one has with objects in
their consciousness. For Brentano, these fundamental acts
were always sensations; how the human mind perceived and
conceived of these sensations in relationship to the self
is what interested Brentano.
His inability to secure a
professorship in Vienna was a source of great frustration
for Brentano, leading him to vocalize his opinions in
papers such as Neue Freie Presse and Die
Zeit . The public dialogue became heated with the
Catholic population at times verbally abusing him in many
of their publications (Das Vaterland). This led to
his departure of Vienna in 1895, opting to live in Italy.
Later, when war was to be declared in Italy, he left for
Zurich, Switzerland. In 1916 he had appendicitis, a
relapse the following spring caused his death on March
17, 1917. The time that followed his tenure in Vienna was
filled with intense and active work. He continued to
write and advance his ideas, sharing them with
contemporaries through letters and lectures given at
various conventions. Brentano’s influence was far
reaching, affecting movements in Prague and Berlin, as
well as the current movement of 20th-century Polish
philosophy. If he had been granted a professorship in
Vienna, it would have significantly changed the direction
of Austrian philosophy in this century.
-Christina
Weber-
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