Bolzano e la filosofia austriaca

Censorship has affected the diffusion of Bolzano’s thought in Austria and concurred to mark out Austrian philosophy prohibiting Bolzano’s works as well as those by Kant and the German idealists. By explaining how Bolzano was nevertheless read by Austrian philosophers, mostly students of Brentano, who set off his thought, some historical interpretations are examined, and especially the part Zimmermann played in the diffusion of Bolzano’s ideas. Without suggesting that there is a single and continuous line in the transmission of such ideas, Zimmermann – who like other scholars at that time joined Herbartianism and Bolzanism – is considered an important advocate of Bolzano’s ideas, which were previously foreign to Austrian philosophical culture and, having been set in motion, contributed to distinguish it. This thesis is demonstrated by examining how some of Bolzano’s theories, namely those concerning ideas and propositions in themselves as well as ideas without objects, were discussed by philosophers who belong to the Austrian philosophical tradition, and by showing how, from an initial difficulty of understanding these ideas by Exner, through the mediation of Zimmermann, an understanding and appreciation of Bolzano is attained by Kerry and finally a productive reworking of some of his ideas is reached in the works of Twardowski and Meinong, who developed their respective object theories thanks to Bolzano.