Uriah Kriegel

Brentano on the Concept and Nature of Mind

Perhaps the philosophical thesis most commonly associated withBrentano is that intentionality is the mark of the mental. In fact,however, Brentano often and centrally uses also what he calls ‘innerperception’ to demarcate the mental. In this paper, I offer a newinterpretation of Brentano’s conception of the interrelations amongmind, intentionality, and inner perception. According to thisinterpretation, Brentano took the concept of mind to be a natural-kindconcept, with inner-perceivability serving as the concept’sreference-fixer and intentionality constituting the underlying natureof the mental.