BRENTANOS INFLUENCE ON EHRENFELSS THEORY OF PERCEPTUAL GESTALTS

The paper specifies, for the first time we believe, the influence of F ranz Brentano on the first paper on the subject of gestalt qualities-b y Christian von Ehrenfels. After outlining the essentials of Ehrenfels 's theory, it specifies some very general positions that Ehrenfels bor rowed from Brentano. It goes on to relate the idea of gestalt at the p erceptual level to Brentano's idea of substance at the conceptual leve l. We claim that Ehrenfels's idea owes much to the Aristotelian ideas of substance and substantial form, so central to Brentano's early thou ght. We claim that Ehrenfels's special contribution was to transpose t o the perceptual level Brentano's (and Aristotle's) doctrine of substa nce and substantial form. There is a short section on Ehrenfels's theo ry of higher-order and cross-modal gestalts, relating the latter to Br entano's teachings on the unity of consciousness. The conclusion brief ly contrasts Ehrenfels with the later Berlin school of gestalt psychol ogists. It is important to get Ehrenfels's theory right because of the continuing role of gestalt thought in contemporary theorizing on perc eption and because the later Berlin school failed to understand his wo rk.