Franz Brentano
FRANZ CLEMENS BRENTANO   Macroknow Library
     

Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint.

"The word "psychology" means science of the soul."1a ARISTOTLE

" . . . [T]he objects of sensory experience are deceptive. . . We have no right . . . to believe that the objects of so-called external perception really exist as they appear to us. Indeed, they demonstrably do not exist outside of us. In contrast to that which really and truly exists, they are mere phenomena."1b AL-GHAZALI DESCARTES

"The phenomena revealed by inner perception are also subject to laws. . . The laws of the coexistence and succession of mental phenomena remain the object of investigation even for those who deny psychology any knowledge of the soul."1c

"Every mental phenomenon is characterized by what the Scholastics of the Middle Ages called the intentional (or mental) inexistence of an object, and what we might call, though not wholly unambiguously, reference to a content, direction toward an object (which is not to be understood here as meaning a thing), or immanent objectivity. . . In presentation something is presented, in judgement something is affirmed or denied, in love loved, in hate hated, in desire desired and so on."1d BADIOU

" . . . [P]sychology is the science of mental phenomena."1e

" . . . [T]he totality of our mental life . . . always forms a real unity. This is the well-known fact of the unity of consciousness which is generally regarded as one of the most important tenets of psychology."1f

" . . . [T]hree main classes of mental phenomena must be distinguished . . . [w]e designate the first by the term "presentation," the second by the term "judgement," and the third by the terms "emotion," "interest," or "love."
. . . We speak of a presentation whenever something appears to us. . .
By "judgement" we mean . . . acceptance (as true) or rejection (as false). . .
Strictly speaking, instead of the simple term "love" I should have used the expression "love or hate" to characterize the third class."
1g BADIOU


     
   

* Italics in the original.

1 Franz Brentano. Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. Edited by Oscar Kraus. English Edition edited by Linda L. McAlister. With a new Introduction by Peter Simons. Translated by Antos C. Rancurello, D. B. Terrell and Linda L. McAlister. New York, NY: Routledge, 1973,1995. Originally published in 1874 by Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, as Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte.
Book One: Psychology as a Science
a I. The Concept and Purpose of Psychology, at 3.
b Ibid., at 9-10.
c Ibid., at 12.
Book Two: Mental Phenomena in General

d I. The Distinction Between Mental and Physical Phenomena, at 88.
e Ibid., at 100.
f IV. On the Unity of Consciousness, at 163.
g VI. Classification of Mental Activities Into Presentations, Judgements, and Phenomena of Love and Hate, at 197-199.

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