ABSTRACT
When looking into modern dictionaries or companions of philosophy, especially in the Anglo-American field, one does not succeed in finding a biographical entry for Christian von Ehrenfels. Christian Freiherr von Ehrenfels was born in Rodaun, Austria on the 20th of June 1859. During his studies at the University of Vienna he was strongly influenced first by Franz Brentano and later by Brentano's pupil, Alexius Meinong. When in 1890 Christian von Ehrenfels published the paper on 'Gestaltqualitäten,' he joined the heated debate about the epistemological status of mechanical explanations which dominated the discussion about the foundation of physics in the end of the 19th century. The specific novelty of Ehrenfels' approach consists in his making more precise the meaning of 'trans-summativity' in Gestalten and thereby opening a new avenue for empirical investigations. There are, however, influences of Ehrenfels on the cultural history, which go beyond cognitive science.
