INTRODUCTION

Though Brentano is a highly significant philosopher in his own right as well as the teacher of various outstanding philosophers, he is most widely known as the teacher of the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl. After Husserl had received his doctorate in mathematics in 1882, he made a career shift to philosophy in 1884 when he decided, under the influence of Thomas Masaryk, to attend lectures of Brentano in Vienna. He continued to do so until 1886, when Brentano recommended Husserl as a diligent student of philosophy to Carl Stumpf in Halle where Husserl was to join the staff in the following year. In the course of the 1890s, however, Husserl changed his philosophical orientation until he finally made his “breakthrough” to phenomenology with the Logical Investigations (1900/1). In later years, in spite of his repeated admissions of Brentano's profound influence on him, he only distanced himself more and more from Brentanian philosophy, while Brentano himself was rather dismayed with Husserl's innovations.