Psychic Acts Further Explored: The Unity of Consciousness and Brentano’s Classification of Mental Acts

Abstract

Brentano’s act psychology is based primarily on the study of mental or psychic phenomena, therefore it is necessary to provide a more detailed understanding of how these phenomena are understood. As a further step in establishing the theoretical foundations for his act psychology, Brentano undertakes the exploration of the complexity and unity or disparity of what can be called “conscious life” (cf. PES, Book Two, chapters 3–6). According to Brentano, all psychic acts participate in the shared ground or unity that is taken as “held together” or constituted by consciousness itself. The starting point for an analysis of the complexity, as well as the unity, of consciousness must be a philosophical and reflective examination of the nature of basic cognitive and non-cognitive mental activity, which is said to be characterized by the accompanying consciousness that is always present where higher level mental activity takes place (PES, 138\PES-G, 181). Thus far, presentations and the direction of acts to their contents have been privileged. Brentano, however, explains that there are other ways in which psychic or mental acts manifest themselves. Amongst these other mental acts can be listed judgments and acts of feeling and volition. Furthermore, in the PES, mental acts are now called “divisives of the same reality” (PES, 161).1