Franz Brentano (1838–1917) was a German philosopher and the founder of descriptive psychology. His central contribution is the rediscovery of intentionality as the essential characteristic of psychical phenomena: every psychical phenomenon is characterized by the ‘intentional inexistence’ of an object. Brentano distinguished presentations, judgments, and movements of the affections as the fundamental classes of psychical acts. As the teacher of Edmund Husserl, he decisively prepared the way for the phenomenological movement.
In the dissertation, Brentano’s concept of intentionality is drawn upon as a fundamental datum of realistic phenomenology: consciousness is essentially consciousness of something and cannot be reduced to neuronal processes or functional states (Bexten 2017, pp. 69–71). Brentano thereby supplies the philosophical foundation on which Husserl, Reinach, and Pfänder further develop the phenomenological method. For the ontology of the person it is decisive that intentionality, as an irreducible essential mark of spiritual acts, attests the person as a spiritual being that stands in a non-causal relation to the world.
Tradition: Descriptive psychology / precursor of phenomenology
Central contributions:
- Rediscovery of intentionality
- Descriptive psychology
- Classification of psychical acts
- Teacher of Edmund Husserl
Sources: Bexten 2017, pp. 69–71 (Brentano’s concept of intentionality as a fundamental datum of realistic phenomenology).
Further sources:
- Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt (1874). Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot (Engl.: Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, transl. A. C. Rancurello, D. B. Terrell, and L. L. McAlister, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973; rediscovery of intentionality as the essential characteristic of psychical phenomena)
See also: