Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint
Brentano's most important and brilliant work ... (done) in a highly original and distinctive manner by arguing for a form of introspectionism
DIFFICULTY
advanced
PAGES
432
READ TIME
≈ 600 mins
DIFFICULTY
advanced
PAGES
432
READ TIME
≈ 600 mins
About Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint
Brentano argues that psychology becomes truly empirical by studying the mind’s defining trait: intentionality—the directed “aboutness” present in every mental act.
Anchored here, he classifies acts into three kinds: presentations (an object before the mind), judgements (assent or dissent), and love–hate phenomena (valuing, desire, emotion). Its evidence comes from inner perception—immediate awareness of ongoing experience—not from after‑the‑fact introspection or laboratory metrics. Descriptive psychology maps the structures and laws of consciousness while genetic psychology tracks causes without reducing mind to physiology.
This blueprint seeded phenomenology and shaped analytic philosophy of mind, and it still shows how to study consciousness without losing what makes it mental—useful to readers curious about neuroscience, AI, or simply how thinking works.
What You'll Learn
- Brentano’s thesis that intentionality is the defining mark of mental phenomena
- Differentiate among presentations, judgments, and phenomena of love/hate as core classes of mental acts
- Brentano’s notion of inner perception and why he rejects traditional introspection as a primary method
- Distinguish descriptive psychology from genetic/explanatory psychology and see how each informs a scientific approach to the mind
- Appreciate the methodological case for psychology as an empirical discipline grounded in first-person evidence
Key Takeaways
- Intentionality: mark of the mental
- Acts vs contents of consciousness
- Inner perception over introspection
- Descriptive vs genetic psychology
- Roots of phenomenology and analytic mind
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