The study of intentionality is relatively recent in the history of philosophy. Although ancient and medieval philosophers such as Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Avicenna or Thomas Aquinas made specific references to the human will, Franz Brentano, who lived in the 19th century, is generally considered to be the pioneer in this field of analysis.

In this article we will describe the main approaches of the psychology of intentionality (or “of the act”) of Franz Brentano . For the German philosopher, intentionality is the main feature that distinguishes psychological phenomena from physical ones, which contain themselves instead of directing the acts towards another external object.

Biography of Franz Brentano

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (1838-1917) was a priest, philosopher and psychologist who was born in Prussia, in present-day Germany. His interest in scholastic philosophy and that of Aristotle led him to study this subject at various German universities and, later, to train as a theologian and become a priest of the Catholic religion .

In 1873 he left the Church because of his disagreements with the official theses; in particular, Brentano denied the dogma of papal infallibility, according to which the Pope is incapable of making mistakes. He later married and devoted himself to university teaching. He died in 1917 in Zurich, Switzerland, where he moved after the outbreak of World War I.

Brentano’s fundamental work is entitled “Psychology from the Empirical Point of View” and was published in 1874. In it this author described the key role of intentionality in thought and other processes of a psychological nature, and stated that it is the main factor that distinguishes them from purely physical phenomena.

The proposals of this pioneer had a great impact on different approaches to psychology and other disciplines: logic, the analytical philosophy of Wittgenstein and Russell, experimental psychology, structuralist and functionalist literary analysis, the Gestalt School and especially phenomenology, based on its psychology of the act.

The concept of intentionality

Brentano recovered the concept of intentionality in modern philosophy. To do so he based himself mainly on the work of Aristotle and other classical authors ; however, it was René Descartes’ approaches, which focused on knowledge rather than on will, that inspired Brentano to highlight the relevance of this construct.

According to this author’s definition, intentionality is the common characteristic of all psychological phenomena . It is the property that directs a given act or event towards an object or goal located in the external world. Intentionality has an immanent character, that is, it is always present in the person’s mind.

Physical phenomena are all those that occur in the external world, such as sounds, visual stimuli and objects in the environment in general. In contrast, among the psychological phenomena we find the perceptions of others of physical type, as well as the mental contents that are directed to these.

In this way all mental phenomena contain an object ; for example, in the act of desiring it is necessary for an external entity to play the role of receiver of such an event. The same happens when we remember an event from the past, a place or a specific piece of information, when we feel love or hate for another living being, etc.

However, since the mental object (the intention or “intentional existence”) that accompanies any physical object has different characteristics for each person, it is not possible in any case for more than one to be directed towards exactly the same object, even if it is equivalent from a physical point of view.

The psychology of the act

Brentano stated that psychology consisted of two branches: descriptive and genetic . The first of these would focus on the description of mental phenomena in the first person, in a similar way to phenomenological psychology. Genetic psychology, like current cognitivism, would do so in the third person by means of empirical experiments.

This philosopher clearly defended the approach to psychology that he called “descriptive”. According to Brentano’s theses and his psychology of the act, we should not analyze the objective experience associated with mental phenomena, but simply focus on describing the way we experience it as richly as possible.

Thus, considering that one cannot study the mind only through its physical correlates, Franz Brentano positioned himself against our discipline being part of the natural sciences . For this author, as for many others in the founding period and in the present, psychology would be closer to philosophy.

However, the psychology of Brentano’s act has been criticized since his appearance (even by the philosopher’s own disciples, much to their regret) for the lack of clarity in his approach. In addition, introspective methods of study are currently being questioned because it is not possible to systematize them adequately.