author
Franz Brentano
1838–1917
A major 19th-century philosopher and psychologist, he helped put the idea of intentionality—the mind's directedness toward objects—back at the center of modern thought. His work shaped later thinkers including Edmund Husserl and influenced the development of phenomenology and philosophy of mind.
1 Audiobook
The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong
by Franz Brentano
About the author
Ordained as a Catholic priest before leaving the priesthood, Franz Brentano became one of the most influential philosophical teachers of his era. He taught at Würzburg and later at the University of Vienna, where his lectures drew students who would go on to leave their own mark on modern philosophy and psychology.
He is best known for Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874), a book that argued mental phenomena are distinguished by intentionality—the way thoughts, perceptions, and desires are always about something. That idea became central to later debates in phenomenology, logic, and philosophy of mind.
Brentano's writing ranges across psychology, ethics, logic, Aristotle, and theology, but his lasting reputation comes from the clarity and reach of his account of mental acts. Even when readers disagree with him, they often find themselves working in a landscape he helped define.