Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint

Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint is a book by the Austrian philosopher Franz Brentano, published in 1874. In it he argues that psychology should aim to establish exact laws, in the manner of the natural sciences, and that the study of mental phenomena can and should be approached empirically. Brentano conceived it as an extensive work of six books: the first five would treat psychology as a science, mental phenomena in general and their three basic classes, and the sixth would address the mind-body problem, the soul and immortality. He wrote it while travelling through Europe, after leaving the Roman Catholic Church and resigning his post at the University of Würzburg. He completed only the first two books, as an illness with smallpox prevented him from continuing, and the project remained unfinished.

The book is Brentano's best-known work and established his reputation as a philosopher. Its most influential thesis is the reintroduction of the concept of intentionality into the philosophy of mind, as the mark that distinguishes mental from physical phenomena. In 1911 he republished the second book under the title Von der Klassifikation der psychischen Phänomene, adding remarks that explained where his later views differed, and in 1924, after his death, a new edition appeared with notes by the philosopher Oskar Kraus.

Its influence was wide: it helped establish psychology as a scientific discipline and left its mark on Husserlian phenomenology, analytic philosophy, gestalt psychology and Alexius Meinong's theory of objects. Critics such as Roger Scruton have noted the obscurity of its passage on intentionality and observed that its aim of an empirical science of the mind was never fulfilled in the volumes written.