The Graz School (), also Meinong's School, of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz Psychological Institute (Grazer Psychologische Institut) in 1894. The Graz School's phenomenological psychology and philosophical semantics achieved important advances in philosophy and psychological science. Meinong and these proteges – particularly their work on phenomenological psychology and philosophical semantics – gained advances in all major areas of philosophy and psychological science. Among Meinong's pupils were Fritz Heider, Stephan Witasek, Vittorio Benussi, Rudolf Ameseder, Konrad Zindler, Wilhelm Maria Frankl, Eduard Martinak, Ernst Mally, Steno Tedeschi, and Franz Weber. Meinong's earlier students, von Ehrenfels (founder of Gestalt psychology), Höfler, Adalbert Meingast, and Anton Oelzelt-Newin, can be considered part of this school. The assistance of these students allowed Meinong to further refine his theories such as object theory.
The Graz School also played an important role in Gestalt theory as Meniong's model of cognition became an important research foundation for Gestalt perception. The Graz School was part of the wider movement of Austrian realism.
Theories
The Graz School developed much of Meinongs theories that covered various topics such as philosophical psychology, metaphysics, semantics and philosophy of language, theory of evidence, possibility and probability, and value theory as well as the analysis of emotion, imagination and abstraction. The School is known for its object theory and theory of the mind.
Aesthetics
It is recognized that Witasek and Benussi assisted Meinong in his philosophical investigations and had contributed to the development of the Graz School. Meinong's himself did not focus on this area in his investigations despite his interest in the arts.
See also
- The Berlin School of experimental psychology founded by Carl Stumpf
- The School of Brentano