Introducti on

Thi s issue of Topoi cont ai ns paper s

that wer e pr esent ed at t he i nt erna-
tional Conf er ence on Fr anz Br en-
t ano ( 1838- - 1917) and Vi t t ori o
Benussi ( 1878- - 1927) t hat t ook
pl ace in Tr i est e and Bol ogna on
June 13- - 16, 1984. The Conf er ence
was organi zed by t he Depar t ment s
of Psychol ogy and Phi l osophy of t he
Uni versi t y of Bol ogna, t he Institute
of Psychol ogy at t he Uni versi t y of
Tri est e, t he Inst i t ut e of Phi l osophy
at t he Uni versi t y of Gr az, and Topoi.
It was sponsor ed by: t he Uni versi t i es
of Bol ogna, Tri est e, and Padova;
t he Aust r i an Gener al Consul at e in
Milan; and t he ' Regi one Emi l i a-
Romagna' , the ' Provi nci a' ; and t he
' Commune' of Bol ogna.
The Br ent ano- sect i on of t he Con-
f er ence was entitled: ' The Descr i p-
tive Psychol ogy of t he Br ent ano
School: Its Hi st ori cal and Cont em-
por ar y Significance' . Al most exact l y
one hundr ed years ago, Fr anz Br en-
t ano had pr esent ed several courses
of l ect ures on Descri pt i ve Psychol -
ogy at t he Uni versi t y of Vi enna.
In 1887/ 88, he called t he cour se
simply ' Deskriptive Psychologie,
oder beschreibende Phiinomenol-
ogie'; and in 1890/ 91 he used t he
title 'Psychognosie'. Br ent ano hel d
t hat descri pt i ve psychol ogy is an
exact empi ri cal sci ence and t hat it
pr ovi des t he f oundat i ons f or t he
phi l osophi cal disciplines.
Br ent ano' s views about descri p-
tive psychol ogy have had an ext ra-
or di nar y i mpact and it is now cl ear
t hat t hey are of first i mpor t ance t o
phi l osophy. But t hey are also con-
troversial. How can any f or m of
nonexper i ment al psychol ogy be an
exact sci ence? What ki nd of war r ant
do we have f or its concl usi ons? And
how coul d it possibly pr ovi de t he
basis f or phi l osophy? These ar e
some of t he quest i ons with which t he
pr esent paper s on Br ent ano are
concer ned.
Anot her i mpor t ant step, inaugu-
rat ed by Br ent ano, was a r ef or m of
classical logic based on his t heor y of
j udgment , i nt erpret i ng j udgment s as
existential proposi t i ons. As in all t he
ot her fields of phi l osophy, however,
Br ent ano never r emai ned cont ent
with his ideas and cont i nued t o
change his t heori es t hr oughout his
life. His revisions wer e ver y oft en far
reaching.
Br ent ano' s view, t hat t he devel -
opment of phi l osophy does not lead
to ever bet t er and mor e compr e-
hensi ve t heori es but r at her has t he
t endency to decl i ne soon aft er a new
and positive phase, is anot her t opi c
of interest. It cont radi ct s t he i dea of
t he ol d positivists t hat sci ence and
phi l osophy cont i nual l y progress.
Br ent ano' s hope was t hat aft er a
per i od of decadence in phi l osophy,
whi ch led t o mysticism, a new
rat i onal Ari st ot el i an per spect i ve
woul d lead t o a new and vital phase.
If we l ook at his school and his
i nfl uence on cont empor ar y philos-
ophy, we may agree with hi m t hat a
new phase of phi l osophy began.
The edi t ors of this issue, whi ch
originally shoul d have cont ai ned
all t he paper s pr esent ed at t he
Br ent ano- sect i on of t he Conf er ence,
regret ver y much t hat onl y a few
of t hem can be pr esent ed here. The
ot her articles by W. Baumgar t ner ,
St. Besoli, R. Hai l er, R. Kami t z, M.
Lenoci , K. Mulligan, P. Spinicci, N.
Stucchi, and R. Sylvan - - some of
t hem ver y l engt hy - - are publ i shed
in Topoi-Supplement.
R. M. CHI SHOLM
R. HALLER
Topoi 6 (1987), 1.
9 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.