The Brentano School and the History of Analytic Philosophy: Reply to Röck

Abstract

In ‘Brentano’s Methodology as a Path through the Divide’, Röck makes two related claims. (A) Röck argues that there exists a philosophical dilemma between description and logical analysis, and that the current divide between continental phenomenology and analytic philosophy may be seen as a consequence of the dilemma. (B) Röck further argues that Brentano’s work integrates description and logical analysis in a way which ‘can provide a suitable starting point for an equally successful integration of these methods in contemporary philosophy’ (Axiomathes 27:475–489, 2017). Without disputing Röck’s claim (B) about the suitability of Brentano’s work for such an integration, this paper questions (A) by examining the influence of Brentano and his school on early analytic philosophy. As recent scholarship in the history of analytic philosophy demonstrates, contrary to Röck’s contention, many prominent analytic philosophers conversed with Brentano and his school’s conceptions of phenomenological description.