Franz Brentano

Franz Brentano
Born	January 16, 1838 Marienberg am Rhein (), Rhine Province, Prussia
Died	March 17, 1917 (aged 79) Zürich, Switzerland
Alma mater	University of Munich University of Berlin University of Münster University of Tübingen (PhD, 1862) University of Würzburg (Dr.hab., 1866)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	School of Brentano Intentionalism ("act psychology") Empirical psychology Austrian phenomenology Austrian Realism
Institutions	University of Würzburg (1866–1873) University of Vienna (1873–1895)
Main interests	Ontology Psychology
Notable ideas	Intentionality, intentional object, distinction between genetic and empirical/descriptive psychology, the judgement–predication distinction, time-consciousness
Influences Aristotle, Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg,Bernard Bolzano
Influenced Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Alexius Meinong, Christian von Ehrenfels, Rudolf Steiner, Tomáš Masaryk, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, George Stout

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (/brɛnˈtɑːnoʊ/; German: [bʀɛnˈtaːno]; January 16, 1838 – March 17, 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and priest whose work strongly influenced not only students Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud, Kazimierz Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, Carl Stumpf, Anton Marty, Christian von Ehrenfels, and Tomáš Masaryk, but many others whose work would follow and make use of his original ideas and concepts.

Brentano was born at Marienberg am Rhein (), near Boppard. He was the son of Christian Brentano, the brother of Lujo Brentano, and the nephew of Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim. He studied philosophy at the universities of Munich, Würzburg, Berlin (with Adolf Trendelenburg) and Münster. He had a special interest in Aristotle and scholastic philosophy. He wrote his dissertation in 1862 at Tübingen under the title Von der mannigfachen Bedeutung des Seienden nach Aristoteles (On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle). His thesis advisor was Franz Jakob Clemens. Subsequently he began to study theology and entered the seminary in Munich and then Würzburg. He was ordained a Catholic priest on August 6, 1864.