The Threefold Essence of Consciousness: Brentano versus Pfänder
European Journal of Philosophy October 2, 2024 C. Erhard 3 citations
There are more than two fundamental kinds of consciousness. While many philosophers hold that only sensory and algedonic (pleasure-pain) phenomenology exist, Franz Brentano and Alexander Pfänder each proposed three basic mental kinds. Brentano's classification includes mere presentations, judgments, and "phenomena of love and hate"; Pfänder's includes object-consciousness, feeling, and striving. Pfänder's view, supplemented by Husserlian ideas, is preferable because Brentano's separation of doxastically neutral presentations from positing judgments is problematic, and his unification of feelings, emotions, desires, and volitions into one class is too broad. The deeper disagreement stems from different views on the "mark of the mental" and the active/passive distinction.