author
Franz Brentano
1838–1917
A major 19th-century philosopher and psychologist, he helped bring the idea of intentionality — the mind’s directedness toward objects — back to the center of modern thought. His teaching and writing 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
Born on January 16, 1838, in Marienberg am Rhein, Franz Brentano studied philosophy, theology, and classical thought before becoming a Catholic priest. He later left the priesthood, but his early training in Aristotle and scholastic philosophy continued to shape his work throughout his life.
Brentano is best known for Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874), a book that argued psychology should study mental acts and famously revived the concept of intentionality — the idea that mental phenomena are always about or directed toward something. This approach made him an important bridge between older philosophical traditions and newer movements in psychology and philosophy.
He taught in Würzburg and Vienna and became an influential mentor to a remarkable group of students, including Edmund Husserl, Alexius Meinong, and Christian von Ehrenfels. Brentano died in Zurich on March 17, 1917, but his work continued to echo through phenomenology, analytic philosophy, and modern theories of mind.