Franz Brentano – Intentionality & psychic acts

Life dates: 1838–1917

Brentano’s concept of intentionality founds modern phenomenology. For monads this means: directedness is a basic form of coupling energy in the field.

Portrait Franz Brentano in Hopper style

Brentano’s categories – substance, relation, accident and mode – become in our theory XQM, VQM, IEQ and XDM: a philosophical ordering, made precise as an architecture of responsible coupling. His insight that every psychic phenomenon is “of something” tells us: monadic couplings are never raw, they always bear an aboutness.

Why Brentano matters for Quantum Monads

Intentionality organises experience and action as directed acts. For us this is the semantics of directed states in the monadic Hilbert space: couplings are never “just there” – they have an of-something. Brentano’s idea of right feeling gives the normative side: not every strong emotion is coherent – what matters is whether it is apt (evident). Exactly here IEQ comes in: it scores value-weighted coherence instead of mere intensity.

Categories & architecture of Quantum Monads

In our reading, Brentano’s theory of categories provides the blueprint of the whole model: from substance, relation, accident and mode we derive the fourfold architecture of XQM, VQM, IEQ and XDM. Thus a classical philosophical ordering becomes an operative schema for coupling, measurement and ethics.

  • Substance → XQM: monads and their state space (Hilbert space), operators, open dynamics. XQM answers: What is the carrier of couplings?
  • Relation → VQM: links between carriers as relation / topology: coupling matrices, resonance windows. VQM answers: How are things connected?
  • Accident → IEQ: situational, application-near contributions: de-escalation, stability, synchronisation. IEQ measures how well couplings work in a given context – not just how strong they are.
  • Mode → XDM: ways of acting / being as mode: normative evaluation, value thresholds, the freedom / distancing operator. XDM regulates under which conditions amplification is responsible.

In this way Brentano shapes not only the terminology but the system architecture: XQM provides the carrier, VQM the linking, IEQ the accidental metric – and XDM the value-based modalisation of action. A “strong emotion” becomes a positive contribution only if it is right (evident) and value-conform (IEQ/XDM).

From feelings to criteria

In Brentano’s tradition, feelings are judged by their claim to validity: there is appropriate, “right” approval / disapproval. Operationally we translate this into thresholds and weight vectors: a coupling gain only counts as positive if its value component exceeds an evidence threshold. So “more energy” does not automatically mean “better”, but: more coherent, value-conform energy.

Applications & measurement protocols

  • IEQ ethics filter for AI: actions only when evidence / value threshold is met (“right feeling” as gatekeeper).
  • Moderation / communication: intensity ≠ relevance – contributions with high coherence evidence are linked with priority.
  • Organisation / decision: goal systems receive value weights; KPI gains without evidence are damped.

Measurement protocols couple IEQ with evidence tests: contributions of single edges are flagged as value-conform or value-adverse (connectable to XDM).

Convergences

  • Directedness (intentionality) as structure of every psychic act.
  • Normative dimension: right feeling analogous to true judgement.
  • Evidence as criterion – not mere strength / intensity.

Extensions

  • Formalisation in the monadic Hilbert space (directed states / operators).
  • IEQ as value-weighted coherence measure.
  • Coupling ethics: thresholds / filters before amplification.

Differences

  • From phenomenological description to operative measurement protocols.
  • From individual value perception to field-level couplings.
  • From analogy “true / right” to quantified IEQ weighting.

Depth and current relevance

Brentano’s act theory still influences value theory, feeling theory and epistemology. For Quantum Monads it provides the normative core: coherence without value is blind. In AI-supported decisions his frame helps to separate intensity from evidence and to tune systems towards value-conform coherence.

Thus the bridge from classical philosophy to modern coupling models emerges: intentionality → directed states; right feeling → evidence thresholds; values → weighting vectors in IEQ.

Further reading on Franz Brentano

Franz Brentano – Intentionality & psychic acts

  • Brentano, F.: The Origin of Our Knowledge of Right and Wrong.

This work supports the normative reading of feelings as right / wrong and supplies the bridge to IEQ ethics.

Forerunners in context

FAQ on Brentano

What does “right feeling” mean?

Feelings have a claim to validity: they can be adequate or misguided – analogous to true or false judgement.

Isn’t that subjective?

Brentano stresses evidence: it is about justifiability, not raw intensity. In IEQ we translate this into thresholds and weights.

How does this connect to IEQ?

IEQ measures coherence with value weights: only evidence-conform gains increase the score; plain excitation without evidence does not count.