Il giovane Franz Brentano e Heinrich Denifle

In this paper the author primarly intends to pay close attention to Brentano’s teaching at Würzburg between 1866-1872, as evinced by some letters to and from Heinrich Denifle. Brentano’s Thoughts have been widely discussed, but some aspects of his first lectures must be reconsidered. To evaluate these aspects is of particular interest an unpublished handwritten volume of 951 pp., entitled Geschichte der Philosophie (History of Philosophy, 1866-67) – the first Brentano’s lecture, 1997 discovered by the author in Graz and expressly attributed to Brentano - as well as the Brentano’s voluminous Nachlass. So it is possible to shed new lights on Brentano’s main goal to stress the importance of the Aristotelian studies and on his predominant conviction to re-consider the mediaeval interpretations of Aristotle in order to establish on a scientific basis the gnoseological and psycological core of the metaphysical discurse. All that is connected with a criticism that in Brentano became explicit against Kant, Hegel, Schelling, forcefully opposed to the historicist-systematic thinking of the German Idealism.