On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle

This is Brentano's doctoral dissertation and his first book. In it he contemplates the several senses of "being," using Aristotle as his guide. He finds that (in Aristotle's view) being in the sense of the categories, in particular substantial being, is the most basic; all other modes, potential and actual being, being in the sense of the true, etc., stand to it in a relation of well-founded analogy. Many of his mature views are prepared in this work. For example his discussion of being in the sense of being true appears to be the foundation of his later nonpropositional theory of judgment. Brentano saw himself not merely as a historical scholar of Aristotle, but as his intimate disciple. In a few lines of occasional verse he called himself brother of Eudemus and Theophrastus, but, as the youngest, beloved of the father above the others.1 In his Aristotelian writings (there are four books) he meditates with Aristotle; he defends him, not his own interpretation; he exults in the sweep and grandeur of his theology. But while he saw the Philosopher as a repository of truth and not only a figure of historical interest, he approached him with an independent mind, fully familiar with the reorientation of science since Aristotle's day. He has only contempt for the Averrhoist view that there is clarity in each subject only to the extent in which Aristotle has dealt with it.2 All this makes Brentano's Aristotelian writings different from those of his learned contemporaries, Zeller, Bonitz, Prantl, Brandis, etc: He thought about the issues more clearly, more profoundly, and more passionately than they, more concerned with substantive truth and coherence, which, in the investigation of Aristotle, he took to be the best guide to historical accuracy.