Brentano, Franz von (1838-1917)

BRENTANO, FRANZ VON (1838-1917)

Franz von Brentano, a German Dominican philosopher and theologian, was born in Marienberg in 1838 and died in Zürich in 1917. His ideas influenced Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. It was in 1874, the year Brentano published his Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt (Psychology from an empirical standpoint), that the young Sigmund Freud, an eighteen-year old student, wrote to his friend Eduard Silberstein[RB1], "I, a doctor and atheist empiricist, I have signed up for two courses in philosophy . . . One of the courses—you will be amazed when you hear this—concerns the existence of God; Prof. Brentano, who is teaching the course, is a man, a thinker, and a marvelous philosopher." On March 7, 1875, he added, "Both of us (me and Paneth) have grown closer to him, we sent him a letter with our objections and he invited us to his home, refuted us, seemed to take an interest in us. . . . Concerning this remarkable man (he is a believer, a teleologist [!] and a Darwinist, and damned intelligent, even brilliant), who in many ways satisfies the requirements of the ideal, I will have much to tell you in person. But I can give you this piece of news now: under Brentano's influence especially (which has had a maturing effect), I have made a decision to sit for the doctorate in philosophy and will study philosophy and zoology."

The most detailed report of the visit to Brentano shows how he influenced Freud: "He totally condemns [Herbart's] a priori constructions in psychology and feels that it's unforgivable that he never thought of considering spontaneous experience or provoked experience to see if they confirmed his gratuitous hypotheses; he claims unhesitatingly to belong to the empirical school, which applies the method of natural science to philosophy and, in particular, to psychology (this is, in fact, the principal advantage of his philosophy, the only thing that makes it bearable for me), and he revealed to us several interesting psychological observations that show the inanity of Herbart's speculations. According to him, it is more necessary to submit certain specific problems to more extensive research, in order to achieve definite partial results, than to claim to embrace philosophy as a whole, which is not possible, given that philosophy and psychology are still young sciences, which cannot expect any support, especially from physiology."

Aside from the affirmation of empiricism and the primacy of observation and experiment that Freud would never forget, the meeting with the Catholic theologian is the only time that Freud, "an atheistic Jew," had a momentary metaphysical hesitation. He described the experience as follows: "Ever since Brentano imposed his God on me with ridiculous facility, through his arguments, I fear being seduced one of these days by proofs in favor of spiritualism, homeopathy, Louise Lateau, etc. . . . It's a fact that his God is nothing but a logical principle and that I have accepted it as such. Yet, we proceed down a slippery slope once we acknowledge the concept of God. It remains to be seen at which point we stumble. Moreover, his God is very strange. . . . It is impossible to refute Brentano before hearing him out, studying him, exploring his thought. Confronted with such a rigorous dialectician, we must strengthen our intellect by addressing his arguments before confronting him directly."

Freud's connection to philosophy lasted longer than this first contact, and it was Franz von Brentano who suggested to Theodor Gomperz, five years later, that Freud translate the twelfth volume of the Complete Works of John Stuart Mill (1880a), which contained "On the Emancipation of Women," "Plato," "The Social Question," and "Socialism."

Alain de Mijolla

See also: Breuer, Josef; Hard science and psychoanalysis; Philosophy and psychoanalysis; Self-consciousness; Vienna, University of.

Bibliography

von Brentano, Franz. (1874) Psychology from an empirical standpoint. Edited by Oskar Kraus, English edition edited by Linda L. McAlister, translated by Antos C. Rancurello, D. B. Terrell, and Linda L. McAlister, with a new introduction by Peter Simons. London, New York: Routledge, 1995.

Freud, Sigmund. (1989a) [1871-81, 1910]). The letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein, 1871-1881 (Walter Boehlich, Ed.; Arnold J. Pomerans, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.