Franz Brentano’s Biography: A Desideratum

Thomas Binder (University of Graz)

There are two main desiderata in Brentano research. One is a textcritical edition of all philosophical manuscripts from Brentano’s Nachlass. The other is a biography of Franz Brentano, which his Enkelschüler Alfred Kastil has already identified as a desideratum in 1951. While a critical edition of his works seems still a long way off, the chances of a biography of Brentano are much better today, as the so-called Brentano family archive is kept as a long-time loan by the Franz Brentano-Archive in Graz since 2019, making more than 4,000 letters from Brentano’s immediate family circle accessible. Along with documents that were already available, the family archive provides the basis for the project of the first comprehensive intellectual biography of Brentano, which is financed by the Austrian Science Fund. It started in August 2024 and runs until the end of 2026. The lecture will first provide a brief overview of the family archive and then present some of the results of the project. The focus will be on the early Brentano and his “Catholic decade,” which has received little attention from researchers so far. In this context, an attempt will be made to answer what Dieter Münch has called the “biographical mystery,” that is Brentano’s decision to become a Catholic priest. In addition, Brentano’s contribution to the development of a Catholic science and his relationship to neo-scholasticism is addressed.

https://meet.google.com/idm-boup-spy

No registration required.