Franz Brentano (1838-1917): The first comprehensive intellectual biography
Project period: 01.08.2023 - 31.07.2026
FWF Individual project P 36683
Funding body: FWF (Austrian Science Fund)
Project leader: Mag. Dr.phil. Thomas Binder
Project collaborators:
- Prof. Dr. Mauro Antonelli
- Christina Fritz, BA.
- MMag. Dr. Markus Rieger-Roschitz
The German-Austrian philosopher Franz Brentano (1838-1917) is considered one of the most influential philosophers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He provided important impulses for both phenomenology and analytical philosophy. His students - the "Brentano School" - included such important researchers as Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Edmund Husserl, Alexius Meinong and Sigmund Freud. Many of his theories continue to attract a great deal of attention in contemporary philosophy.
In addition to a critical edition of his extensive legacy, there is a further desideratum in Brentano research, namely an (intellectual) biography of his entire life. In Brentano's case, such a biography is of particular interest, as far-reaching biographical events had serious consequences for his university career and his philosophical development. Previous biographical attempts have failed, mainly due to the inadequacy of the sources. In 2019, however, the situation changed fundamentally when the Brentano Archive in Graz was loaned the Brentano family archive, which had previously been privately owned and contained more than 4,000 original letters from and to Brentano, providing completely new insights into his life and thoughts.
The project conceives Brentano's biography as an intellectual biography, i.e. it attempts to trace his life and the development of his philosophy in parallel and to focus on the interactions between the two. In addition, the political and cultural background will also be taken into account. Brentano research has so far concentrated primarily on Brentano's efforts to overcome speculative idealism and reform philosophy in the sense of an empirical-scientific method. Brentano's early work on Aristotle and, above all, the formative influence of Catholicism on his intellectual and emotional development have been largely ignored. One of the main aims of the project is to overcome this deficit by attempting, among other things, to determine Brentano's position in the discussions surrounding the so-called neo-scholasticism of the 1860s. This examination of Brentano's Catholic background will ultimately lead to a reassessment of his philosophical project.