Brentano: Value

This thesis (110 pages) was submitted in March 1970 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. The work was supervised by Professor Raymond Klibansky, McGill University.

According to Brentano, logic, ethics and aesthetics are practical normative sciences, and they correspond to the three classes of psychic phenomena. But if a judgment or a love may be correct or incorrect, it seems more difficult to speak of a correct representation as this class of phenomena ignores a polarity such as right / wrong or good / bad. Brentano speaks nevertheless from the aesthetical “value” of representations. Aesthetics could in this way be considered as part of a general (...) theory of value; but compared to ethics the specificity of this science tends to vanish. Another way to consider the question is to remember that the distinction among the three classes of psychic phenomena is only formal. It means that one has to question more precisely the very nature of representation and especially its relation to feeling. (shrink)

According to Brentano, logic, ethics and aesthetics are practical normative sciences, and they correspond to the three classes of psychic phenomena. But if a judgment or a love may be correct or incorrect, it seems more difficult to speak of a correct representation as this class of phenomena ignores a polarity such as right / wrong or good / bad. Brentano speaks nevertheless from the aesthetical “value” of representations. Aesthetics could in this way be considered as part of a general (...) theory of value; but compared to ethics the specificity of this science tends to vanish. Another way to consider the question is to remember that the distinction among the three classes of psychic phenomena is only formal. It means that one has to question more precisely the very nature of representation and especially its relation to feeling. (shrink)

Mooreans claim that intrinsic goodness is a conceptual primitive. Fitting-attitude theorists object: they say that goodness should be defined in terms of what it is fitting for us to value. The Moorean view is often considered a relic; the fitting-attitude view is increasingly popular. I think this unfortunate. Though the fitting-attitude analysis is powerful, the Moorean view is still attractive. I dedicate myself to the influential arguments marshaled against Moore’s program, including those advanced by Scanlon, Stratton-Lake and Hooker, and Jacobson; (...) I argue that they do not succeed. (shrink)

Here is a rather difficult two-part question: How may we grasp (a) the nature of reality and (b) the nature of value? As I understand the man, answering this question was the principal, overarching aim of Franz Brentano’s philosophical work. More specifically, he wanted to provide an answer that respected a self-imposed theoretical constraint, namely, that our grasp of a thing’s status as real or as valuable be ultimately grounded in direct encounter with certain aspects of our conscious experience. The (...) purpose of my book Brentano’s Philosophical System: Mind, Being, Value (henceforth, BPS) is to reconstruct Brentano’s attempt to answer his question, present a partial defense of the answer, offer some potential improvements on it, and also point to persistent difficulties it faces. Here I (a) speed-explain Brentano’s self-imposed constraint and its motivation, (b) reconstruct Brentano’s account of the real in light of it, and (c) reconstruct Brentano’s corresponding account of the valuable. These three tasks correspond roughly to BPS’s three parts: ‘Mind,’ ‘Being,’ and ‘Value.’ . (shrink)

This paper argues that the view of the emotions put forward by Brentano, and the modifications and refinements of his claims undertaken by his followers, led to the birth of new paradigm in the philosophy of emotion. The paper is structured in four main sections. The first section presents the context in which Brentano’s theory emerged. Section 2 is devoted to Brentano’s three main claims on the emotions, focusing on their intentionality, their dependency on cognitions, and their relation to values. (...) Section 3 offers an overview of the main debates surrounding these claims among the authors belonging to Brentano’s school. The paper concludes by underlining the parallels between views on the emotions put forward by Brentano and his followers and similar claims defended in contemporary analytic philosophy. (shrink)

Dans ses écrits sur l’éthique, Brentano affirme que les propriétés morales — comme « bon » — sont l’objet d’une représentation intuitive non sensible dont le contenu est de nature « mentale ». Si la nature mentale de ces contenus en garantit le caractère d’évidence, elle en complexifie aussi l’élucidation ontologique et épistémologique, qui doit tenir compte de la classification brentanienne des actes psychiques. C’est justement cette complexité constitutive qui a fait de la théorie éthique de Brentano un passage obligé (...) pour beaucoup de courants philosophiques importants du xxe siècle, par exemple pour la phénoménologie des valeurs et l’intuitionnisme éthique. Le but de cette étude est de rappeler les aspects les plus significatifs de la théorie éthique de Brentano et de montrer si — et si oui, en quel sens — elle peut être qualifiée de « réaliste ». (shrink)

Brentano et Husserl reconnurent tous deux que certaines de nos intentionnalités posent des enjeux normatifs. Seulement, Brentano croyait que les intentionnalités ne peuvent être qualifiées normativement que si elles sont incompatibles avec une autre façon opposée de se rapporter intentionnellement à un même objet. Husserl insista pour sa part sur le fait qu’il n’y a des enjeux normatifs que là où il y a une relation intentionnelle et positionnelle. Malgré cette distinction, en imposant ces conditions (incompatibilité et position) pour qu’il (...) soit question de normativité intentionnelle, Brentano et Husserl se trouvèrent tous deux à favoriser un réductionnisme normatif. Je proposerai pour ma part, dans un geste rappelant celui de la pragmatique d’Austin mais sans m’y restreindre pour autant, de dépasser ce réductionnisme normatif en cessant de limiter à ces conditions l’application de normes à nos intentionnalités. (shrink)

Riassunto: Il presente studio intende mostrare la natura specifica del cognitivismo emotivo proposto da Franz Brentano. In maniera più o meno evidente, la teoria del valore delineata da Brentano ha ricoperto un ruolo di primaria importanza nel dibattito assiologico-etico di fine Ottocento e inizio Novecento ed è ampiamente discussa anche all’interno del dibattito contemporaneo. Nel contributo vengono richiamati gli aspetti generali di tale teoria soffermandosi sulla nozione di “rappresentazione intuitiva” intesa come modalità che permette di conoscere ciò che giusto e (...) ciò che è ingiusto. Si passa dunque a discutere l’accezione brentaniana di “preferibilità intrinseca”, rilevando, in sede di conclusione, che l’effettiva centralità e attualità della teoria brentaniana sono conseguenza diretta della sua intrinseca natura “non univoca”. Parole chiave: Franz Brentano; Valore; Emozione; Cognitivismo emotivo; Presentazione intuitiva Franz Brentano and Emotional Cognitivism: This essay aims to describe the specific nature of the emotional cognitivism sketched out by Franz Brentano. Indeed in a more or less direct way the value-theory he developed has played a key-role both within the ethical-axiological debate at the turn of the 20th century and in contemporary debate. In this paper I describe the general traits of Brentano’s value-theory focusing primarily on his account of concrete intuitive presentation insofar as it allows us to acknowledge what it is right and wrong. Then I discuss Brentano’s characterization of “intrinsic preferability” and conclude by arguing that the historical-philosophical prominence and relevance of this value-account may be sought in its “not univocal nature”. Keywords: Franz Brentano; Value; Emotion; Emotional Cognitivism; Intuitive Presentation. (shrink)

According to most substantive axiological theories – theories telling us which things are good and bad – pleasure is nonderivatively good. This seems to imply that it is always good, even when directed towards a bad object, such as another person’s suffering. This implication is accepted by the Mainstream View about misdirected pleasures: it holds that when someone takes pleasure in another person’s suffering, his being pleased is good, although his being pleased by suffering is bad. This view gains some (...) of its popularity from the advantages of an axiological theory that is structured in the way advocated by Brentano. However, I argue that we should reject the Mainstream View, in favour of an alternative suggested by Aristotle: this distinguishes between nonderivative goodness and exceptionless goodness. When it is good, being pleased is good nonderivatively – but it is not always good. The aim of the paper is to show how a Brentano-style theory can be modified to accommodate this alternative view, and how that supports a case for accepting it. (shrink)

L’article revient, à la lumière de Brentano, sur l’«esthétique» d’Aristote. Si Aristote a insisté sur la manière dont la perception suppose la donation d’un perceptible existant à l’extérieur, il semble qu’il est aussi fait droit à ce qu’aurait de spécifique le percept, en tant qu’il constituerait un objet perçu interne à l’âme. Il faut dès lors revenir sur la passivité que constituerait la sensation, et insister sur l’activité perceptive de l’âme en tant qu’elle vise, déjà dans la sensation, un objet (...) mental. Une telle lecture «brentanienne» d’Aristote se trouve déjà annoncée par l’interprétation de la doctrine de la connaissance aristotélicienne que l’on trouve chez les commentateurs grecs, Thémistius et Philopon notamment. (shrink)

Uriah Kriegel presents a rich exploration of the philosophy of the great nineteenth-century thinker Franz Brentano. He locates Brentano at the crossroads where the Anglo-American and continental European philosophical traditions diverged. At the centre of this account of Brentano's philosophy is the connection between mind and reality. Kriegel aims to develop Brentano's central ideas where they are overly programmatic or do not take into account philosophical developments that have taken place since Brentano's death a century ago; and to offer a (...) partial defense of Brentano's system as quite plausible and in any case extraordinarily creative and thought-provoking. Brentano's system grounds a complete metaphysics and value theory in a well-developed philosophy of mind, and accordingly the book is divided into three parts, devoted to Brentano's philosophy of mind, his metaphysics, and his moral philosophy. The book's fundamental ambition is to show how Brentano combines the clarity and precision of the analytic philosopher with the sweeping vision of the continental philosopher. Brentano pays careful attention to important distinctions, conscientiously defines key notions, presents precise arguments for his claims, judiciously considers potential objections, and in general proceeds very methodically - yet he does so not as an end in itself, but as a means only. His end is the crafting of a grand philosophical system in the classical sense, attempting to produce nothing less than a unified theory of the true, the good, and the beautiful. (shrink)

Although interpreters have long recognized Franz Brentano’s powerful impact on his students, the career-long persistence of his hold on Edmund Husserl is still underestimated. Conventional narratives of Husserl’s development describe his mentor’s pervasive early impact followed by a sharp break from the master’s philosophy. My essay challenges this account by arguing that Husserl’s shift toward transcendental phenomenology within the domain of ethics marked a reappraisal – even a reinvigoration – of Brentanian premises, rather than an attempt to discard them.

En 1901, l’auteur a démontré que la notion de la valeur économique est basée sur celle de la préférence et de l’avantage. Partant des résultats acquis par Franz Brentano dans l’analyse des notions d’avantage et de valeur, l’auteur démontre que tes notions d’utilité et de devoir se ramènent à cette même base. Il s’ensuit une démonstration du rapport des obligations juridiques et des normes de droit positif, avec l’idée du devoir moral. L’auteur s’efforce de réaliser la synthèse du subjectivisme de (...) Protagoras et de l’objectivisme platonicien en prenant, avec le premier, la conscience subjective comme point de départ, et en désignant, avec le second, les actes distingués comme justes {in sich als richtig charakterisierte Akte) pour fondement de l’objectivité de ce qu’on appelle vérités et valeurs objectives. (shrink)

The Swiss philosopher Anton Marty (Schwyz, 1847 - Prague, 1914) belongs, with Carl Stumpf, to the first circle of Brentano’s pupils. Within Brentano’s school (and, to some extent, in the secondary literature), Marty has often been considered (in particular by Meinong) a kind of would-be epigone of his master (Fisette & Fréchette 2007: 61-2). There is no doubt that Brentano’s doctrine often provides Marty with his philosophical starting points. But Marty often arrives at original conclusions which are diametrically opposed to (...) Brentano’s views. This is true of his views about space and time and about judgment, emotions and intentionality. In the latter case, for example, Marty develops Brentano’s view and its implications in great detail (Mulligan 1989; Rollinger 2004), but uses them to formulate a very unBrentanian account of intentionality as a relation of ideal assimilation (Chrudzimski 1999; Cesalli & Taieb 2013). Marty’s philosophy of language, on the other hand, is one of the first philosophies worthy of the name. In what follows, we contrast briefly their accounts of (i) judgment and states of affairs and of (ii) emotings and value (two topics of foremost significance, for Brentano and Marty’s theoretical and practical philosophies respectively) (§1), and their philosophies of language (§2). Brentano’s view of language is based on his philosophy of mind. Marty takes over the latter and turns a couple of claims by Brentano about language into a sophisticated philosophy of language of a kind made familiar much later by Grice. Marty’s philosophy of states of affairs and value and of the mind’s relations to these also takes off from views sketched by the early Brentano, views forcefully rejected by the later Brentano. (shrink)

Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, later founder and President of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, studied philosophy in the University of Vienna from 1872 to 1876, where he came under the powerful influence of Franz Brentano. We survey the role of Brentano’s philosophy, and especially of his ethics, in Masaryk’s life and work.

This paper explores Franz Brentano’s metaethics by comparing it to Thomas Reid’s. Brentano and Reid share a commitment to moral realism and they are both aptly classified as intuitionists concerning moral knowledge and the nature of moral judgment. However, their respective versions of intuitionism are importantly different, in ways that reflect more general differences between their respective epistemological views. Sections III and IV of the paper focus more exclusively on Brentano’s metaethics and some of its unorthodox features. These features tie (...) in with notorious difficulties for moral realism concerning the nature of moral truth and the relation between moral judgment and motivation to act. (shrink)

Franz Brentano’s theory of emotion is tightly bound up with many of his other central claims, in such a way that one has to work out how it relates to these other claims if one is to understand its distinctive character. There are two main axes of investigation. The first results from the fact that Brentano introduces his theory of emotion as part of his overall theory of mind, which consists of a number of closely interconnected theses concerning the nature (...) of mental phenomena, the nature of consciousness, and the classification of mental phenomena into fundamental kinds (Brentano 1874/1973a). The second derives from the fact that his theory of emotion also forms the foundation of his epistemology of objective value, which he elaborates in a framework constituted by an epistemic theory of truth and an extended analogy he draws between emotions and judgments (Brentano 1889/1969). I will consider both of these axes in what follows. (shrink)

According to ‘Fitting Attitude’ (FA) analyses of value, for an object to be valuable is for that object to have properties—other than its being valuable—that make it a fitting object of certain responses. In short, if an object is positively valuable it is fitting to favour it; if an object is negatively valuable it is fitting to disfavour it. There are several variants of FA analyses. Some hold that for an object to be valuable is for it to be such (...) that it ought to be favoured; others hold that value is analyzable in terms of reasons or requirements to favour. All these variants of the FA analysis are subject to a partiality challenge : there are circumstances in which some agents have reasons to favour or disfavour some object—due to the personal relations in which they stand to the object—without this having any bearing on the value of the object. A. C. Ewing was one of the first philosophers to draw attention to the partiality challenge for FA analyses. In this paper I explain the challenge and consider Ewing's responses, one of which is preferable to the other, but none of which is entirely satisfactory. I go on to develop an alternative Brentano-inspired response that Ewing could have offered and that may well be preferable to the responses Ewing actually did offer. (shrink)

This book addresses some basic questions about intrinsic value: What is it? What has it? What justifies our beliefs about it? In the first six chapters the author defends the existence of a plurality of intrinsic goods, the thesis of organic unities, the view that some goods are 'higher' than others, and the view that intrinsic value can be explicated in terms of 'fitting' emotional attitudes. The final three chapters explore the justification of our beliefs about intrinsic value, including coherence (...) theories and the idea that some value beliefs are warranted on the basis of emotional experience. Professor Lemos defends the view that some value beliefs enjoy 'modest' a priori justification. The book is intended primarily for professional philosophers and their graduate students working in ethics, value theory and epistemology. (shrink)

DESCRIPTION—An essay showing Kafka's The Trial to be written as illustration of an important theory of natural that remains quite unknown all but a very few critics and commentators. CONTENTS 1. The charge against Joseph K. Ignorance of the natural sanction of law and custom a. Brentano's conception of natural law b. Natural law and human need in the Protagoras 2. Correct choice: Brentano's ethical theory a. The empirical origin of the concepts "good" and "better": analogous derivation of "true" b. (...) Evident and blind judgments; evident and blind emotions c. Virtue is unteachable: the point of K.'s Trial d. Guilt and definite acquittal are logically compatible 3. K.'s case on appeal: innocence can be acquired 4. K.'s delusion over guilt: the legend "Before the Law". (shrink)

En este opúsculo dedicado a la estética, Brentano parte de sus puntos de vista sobre antropología y teoría del conocimiento para investigar el elemento distintivo de un ser humano genial. Aquello que convierte una obra de arte en una obra maestra, la genialidad, ¿está originado por una fuerza sobrehumana, una «inspiración», o bien es un rasgo de la psique del artista? Franz C. Brentano. 'La genialidad'. Introducción, traducción y notas de David Torrijos-Castrillejo. Serie opuscula philosophica 61. Madrid, Encuentro, 2016, ISBN: (...) 978-84-9055, 66 pp. Título original: 'Das Genie. Vortrag gehalten im Saale des Ingenieur- und Architektenvereins in Wien'. Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1892. (shrink)

In his entire oeuvre Brentano defended a scientific conception of philosophy and advocated the adoption of a rigorous, scientific method. Given this background it might come as a surprise that in his reflections on aesthetics he firmly rejected the classic definition of aesthetics as the science of beauty. This must not be read as an expression of disinterest in – or a dismissal of – aesthetics, though. It is rather an expression of Brentano's view concerning the position of aesthetics in (...) his overall system. He conceived it – on a par with logic and ethics – not as a theoretical science, but as a practical discipline that was rooted in psychology: aesthetics, Brentano suggests, is not constituted by a set of intrinsically related propositions; it rather serves the practical purpose of instructing those who want to experience the beautiful with correct taste or to create works of art. The task of aesthetics is, in other words, to formulate a set of rules or instructions that teach us how to correctly experience beauty, how to come to prefer the more over the less beautiful, but also how to create beauty and how to produce works of art that have the power to bring about aesthetic pleasure in the beholder. (shrink)