In hmolscience, Franz Brentano (1838-1917) was an Austrian-German philosopher and psychologist noted for his circa 1869 entropological proof for the existence of god and for his overall effort to use the scientific method and positivism to establish a new form of natural theology.
Overview
Brentano, was an avid student of Aristotle, and did his PhD dissertation on “On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle”. [1]
In 1864, Brentano was ordained a Catholic priest, but nine years later left the church. [2]
In 1868 to 1869, at the University of Wurzburg, during the year when both Adolf Fick and Rudolf Clausius were colleague professors, according to Helge Kragh, produced, independently, the second entropological proof for the existence of god. [2]
In 1869, Brentano, in an article, discussed his favor for positivism, referring to Auguste Comte as “one of the foremost thinkers of which our century can boast.” [2]
Freud
Brentano was influential to Sigmund Freud, e.g. by helping supervise his doctoral dissertation.
References
1. Brentano, Franz. (c.1920). On the Existence of God: Lectures given at the Universities of Wurzburg and Vienna (1868-1891) (translator: Susan F Krantz) (entropy, 9+ pgs). Springer, 1987.
2. Kragh, Helge S. (2008). Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology (Brentano, 13+ pgs). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
External links
● Franz Brentano – Wikipedia.
