Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint

Franz Bretano, the nephew of the poet Clemens Brentano and the author Bettina von Arnim, was born at Marienburg, in what is now Poland, and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1864. He taught philosophy and psychology at the Universities of Wurzburg and Vienna. Brentano wrote voluminously on a variety of philosophical subjects, including philosophy of mind and psychology, logic, epistemology, moral philosophy, and philosophical theology. In addition, he was a distinguished scholar of classical Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle. Brentano's influence was reflected in his many distinguished students including Edmund Husserl, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Tamas Maszaryk, and Anton Marty. Brentano's best-known philosophical contribution is his theory of intentionality, which characterizes mental events as involving the direction of the mind to an object.