The School of Brentano refers to the philosophers and psychologists who studied with
Franz BrentanoFranz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano was an influential German philosopher and psychologist whose influence was felt by other such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Kazimierz Twardowski and Alexius Meinong, who followed and adapted his views.-Life:Brentano was born at Marienberg am...
and were essentially influenced by him. While it was never a school in the traditional sense, Brentano tried to maintain some cohesion in the school. However, precisely two of his most famous students (
Alexius MeinongAlexius Meinong was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology.-Life:Meinong was born in Lemberg, Austria and died in Graz, Austria. He studied at the Akademisches Gymnasium, Vienna and later the University of Vienna, where he read history and philosophy as a pupil of Franz...
and
Edmund HusserlEdmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher who is deemed the founder of phenomenology...
), were those that ultimately moved most radically beyond his theories.
The School of Brentano refers to the philosophers and psychologists who studied with
Franz BrentanoFranz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano was an influential German philosopher and psychologist whose influence was felt by other such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Edmund Husserl, Kazimierz Twardowski and Alexius Meinong, who followed and adapted his views.-Life:Brentano was born at Marienberg am...
and were essentially influenced by him. While it was never a school in the traditional sense, Brentano tried to maintain some cohesion in the school. However, precisely two of his most famous students (
Alexius MeinongAlexius Meinong was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology.-Life:Meinong was born in Lemberg, Austria and died in Graz, Austria. He studied at the Akademisches Gymnasium, Vienna and later the University of Vienna, where he read history and philosophy as a pupil of Franz...
and
Edmund HusserlEdmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher who is deemed the founder of phenomenology...
), were those that ultimately moved most radically beyond his theories.
Among the School of Brentano are counted (place and period they studied with Brentano):
- Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist.Born in Wiesentheid, he studied with Franz Brentano and Rudolf Hermann Lotze...
(WürzburgWürzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, 1866 - 1870)
- Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher who is deemed the founder of phenomenology...
(ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, 1884 - 1886 )
- Alexius Meinong
Alexius Meinong was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology.-Life:Meinong was born in Lemberg, Austria and died in Graz, Austria. He studied at the Akademisches Gymnasium, Vienna and later the University of Vienna, where he read history and philosophy as a pupil of Franz...
(ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, 1875 - 1878)
- Christian von Ehrenfels
Christian Freiherr von Ehrenfels was an Austrian philosopher, and is known as one of the founders and precursors of Gestalt psychology....
- Kazimierz Twardowski
Kazimierz Jerzy Skrzypna-Twardowski was a Polish philosopher and logician.-Life:Twardowski's family belonged to the Ogończyk coat-of-arms....
(Vienna, 1885 - 1889)
- Anton Marty (Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, 1866 - 1870)
- Alois Höfler
- Benno Kerry
- Tomáš Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia...
- Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
- Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social thinker, architect and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
Brentano's students were in their turn founders of new schools or movements:
- Stumpf taught Aron Gurwitsch
Aron Gurwitsch was a Lithuanian-born Jewish American philosopher working in the field of phenomenology. He wrote on the relations between phenomenology and Gestalt psychology. He taught at The New School For Social Research's Graduate Faculty of Social and Political Science from 1959 to...
and became the head of the Berlin SchoolThe Berlin School of experimental psychology was headed by Carl Stumpf , who became professor at the University of Berlin where he founded the Berlin laboratory of experimental psychology ....
(Max WertheimerMax Wertheimer was a Czech-born Jewish teacher who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler....
, Kurt KoffkaKurt Koffka was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin and earned his PhD there in 1909 as a student of Carl Stumpf...
, Wolfgang KöhlerWolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, Fritz Perls, and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.-Early life:...
)
- Husserl founded the phenomenological movement, influencing:
- Munich phenomenology
Munich Phenomenology, refers to the group of philosophers, psychologists and phenomenologists that studied and worked in Munich at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Edmund Husserl published his masterwork, the Logical Investigations and began the phenomenological movement...
(Johannes Daubert, Adolf ReinachAdolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach , German philosopher, phenomenologist and law theorist.-Life and Works:...
)
- existential phenomenology
Existential phenomenology is a philosophical current inspired by Martin Heidegger's 1927 work Sein und Zeit and influenced by the existential work of Søren Kierkegaard and the phenomenological work of Edmund Husserl....
(Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
, Maurice Merleau-PontyMaurice Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger in addition to being closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir...
and Martin HeideggerMartin Heidegger was an influential German philosopher. His best known book, Being and Time, is considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century...
)
- Meinong was the head of the Graz School
The Graz School of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz psychological institute ....
and influenced among others Stephan Witasek, Alois Höfler, Vittorio Benussi and Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the...
.
- Christian von Ehrenfels is credited with the introduction of the notion of Gestalt, which led to the establishment of Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism of the Berlin School is a theory of mind and brain positing that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies, or that the whole is different from the sum of its parts...
.
- Twardowski was the teacher of Tadeusz Kotarbiński
Tadeusz Kotarbiński , a pupil of Kazimierz Twardowski, was a Polish philosopher, logician, one of the most representative figures of the Lwów-Warsaw School, and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning as well as the Polish Academy of Sciences...
and became the "father of Polish logic" as patron of the Lwów-Warsaw School of logic (Jan LukasiewiczJan Łukasiewicz was a Polish mathematician born in Lwów, Galicia, Austria-Hungary . His major mathematical work centred on mathematical logic...
, Stanisław Leśniewski, Kazimierz AjdukiewiczKazimierz Ajdukiewicz was a Polish philosopher and logician.He originated many novel ideas in semiotics, including the "categorial grammar" used by many formal linguists...
and Alfred TarskiAlfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician...
)
- Marty and his disciple Karl Bühler
Karl Bühler was a German psychologist known for his work about gestalt and his Organon model which influenced Friedemann Schulz von Thuns four sides model....
developed a detailed theory of language, which influenced Reinach (who developed a theory of speech acts long before John AustinJohn Langshaw Austin was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford University. Austin is widely associated with the concept of the speech act and the idea that speech is itself a form of action...
).
- Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and continued by others. It is primarily devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior, although it also can be applied to societies.
...
.
Also scholars such as
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the...
,
Roderick ChisholmRoderick M. Chisholm was an American philosopher known for his work on epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University under Clarence Irving Lewis and Donald C...
,
George Edward MooreGeorge Edward Moore OM, usually known as G. E. Moore, was a distinguished and influential English philosopher...
,
Gilbert RyleGilbert Ryle , was a British philosopher, and a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers influenced by Wittgenstein's insights into language, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the machine"...
,
John SearleJohn Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and presently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Searle began his college education at the University of Wisconsin, and subsequently became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he earned an...
,
Barry SmithBarry Smith is the name of:*Barry Smith , ontologist at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York*Barry Smith , preacher from New Zealand...
,
Kevin MulliganKevin Mulligan is a British philosopher, working on ontology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of logic....
,
Peter SimonsPeter Simons, FBA, is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. He studied at the University of Manchester, and has held teaching posts at the University of Bolton, the University of Salzburg, where he is Honorary Professor of Philosophy, and the University of Leeds.He has been...
and
Jan WoleńskiJan Woleński , born on , Polish philosopher. He is currently Professor of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University ; he graduated both in philosophy and law, attaining his doctorate and "habilitation" in jurisprudence. He belongs to the tradition of analytic philosophy, and considers himself...
have propagated Brentano's influence to analytic philosophy through their research, editions and publications.
Through the works and teachings of his pupils the philosophy of Franz Brentano has been spread far and wide and indirectly influenced many if not most of the debates in contemporary philosophy, cognitive science and philosophy of mind.