Blackwell Reference Online

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(1838–1917) German philosopher-psychologist. Brentano taught for much of his life in the University of Vienna, where his students included H usserl , Christian von Ehrenfels (1859–1932), Carl Stumpf (1848–1936), Kasimir Twardowski (1866–1938) and M einong . Of these Husserl, notoriously, was the founder of PHENOMENOLOGY, Ehrenfels and Stumpf were instrumental in the formation of the Gestalt-psychological movement in Berlin, Twardowski was almost single-handedly responsible for the founding of modern Polish philosophy, and Meinong established what has come to be known as the “theory of objects”. Common to all of these thinkers is the use of psychology, following the example of Brentano himself, as the basis for the development of new and original ideas in ONTOLOGY. Brentano's rigorous and analytic style of teaching and his doctrine of the unity of scientific method ( see unity of science ) formed part of the background also of the LOGICAL POSITIVISM of the Vienna circle. Brentano's early works concern the metaphysics and psychology of A ristotle . For Aristotle, as seen through Brentano's eyes, the two realms of thinking and of corporeal substance are, as it were, attuned to each other. Perceiving and thinking amount to something like a taking in of form from the one into the other. Forms or UNIVERSALS exist, accordingly, in two different ways: within corporeal substance and ... log in or subscribe to read full text