The Substance of Brentano's Ontology
Barry Smith
from: Topoi 6/1 (1987), 39-49.
Pdf file of Preprint VersionPresents an interpretation of Brentano's theory of categories, and more specifically of Brentano's view according to which space is the single substance of which all other entities are accidents or tropes. In the appendix to his Theory of Categories Brentano puts forward an even more radical suggestion, inspired by the physics of Kelvin. According to this final view, space itself is an accident of a deeper substance: the present time.