Benno Kerry (; né Kohn; 11 December 1858 – 20 May 1889) was an Austrian philosopher.

Life

Kerry was born as Benno KohnRollinger 1999, p. 125. in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He studied under Ernst Laas and

Otto Liebmann Otto Liebmann (; 25 February 1840 – 14 January 1912) was a German neo-Kantian philosopher. Biography He was born at Löwenberg, Silesia, into a Jewish family, and educated at Leipzig and Halle. He was made professor at Strassburg (1872) and ...

at the

University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

and from 1877/78 under

Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 '' Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'', considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintrod ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. In 1881 he obtained his doctorate with the dissertation ''Untersuchungen über das Causalproblem auf dem Boden einer Kritik der einschlägigen Lehren J. St. Mills'' ("Investigations concerning the problem of causality on the basis of a critique of the relevant doctrines of

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...

"). In Vienna, as part of the School of Brentano he befriended Alois Höfler.Rollinger 1999, p. 126. In 1885 he obtained his habilitation as ''Privatdozent'' in Strasburg with ''Grundzüge einer Theorie der mathematischen und nicht-mathematischen Grenzbegriffe. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntnistheorie'' ("Foundations of a theory of mathematical and non-mathematical limit concepts. A contribution to epistemology") and became the assistant of the

neo-Kantian In late modern philosophy, neo-Kantianism () was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the thing-in-itself and his moral philosophy ...

Wilhelm Windelband Wilhelm Windelband (; ; 11 May 1848 – 22 October 1915) was a German philosopher of the Baden School. Biography Windelband was born the son of a Prussian official in Potsdam. He studied at Jena, Berlin, and Göttingen. Philosophical work Win ...

. Kerry was influenced by

Bernard Bolzano Bernard Bolzano (, ; ; ; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal ...

Rollinger 1999, p. 127. and became an important conduit of his work. He was among the first students of Brentano (with Meinong and Höfler) to distinguish clearly between concept and object. Kerry died on 20 May 1889 as a result of an ear infection. Kerry was double first cousins with Fritz Kerry, who was the father of Richard Kerry and grandfather of

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

Influence

Kerry exercised an influence not just within the circle of Brentano, especially on Alois Höfler (for the concept "psychical labor"),

Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...

(in the '' Philosophy of Arithmetic''), and

Kazimierz Twardowski Kazimierz Jerzy Skrzypna-Twardowski (; 20 October 1866 – 11 February 1938) was a Polish philosopher, psychologist, logician, and rector of the Lwów University. He was initially affiliated with Alexius Meinong's Graz School of object theory. ...

,Maria van der Schaar 2015, p. 53. but also on

Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philos ...

. In fact, Frege conceived his paper "

Concept and Object In the philosophy of language, the distinction between concept and object is attributable to the German philosopher Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and ma ...

" as a reply to Kerry's criticisms. Furthermore he was in close contact with

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( ; ; – 6 January 1918) was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a foundations of mathematics, fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor establi ...

and it is thanks to his review of the ''Mannigfaltigkeitslehre'' that

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

came to know of the work of Cantor.

Kerry and Frege

Kerry (in particular in his fourth article) criticized Frege for having confused concept and object in his ''

Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik ''The Foundations of Arithmetic'' () is a book by Gottlob Frege, published in 1884, which investigates the Philosophy, philosophical foundations of arithmetic. Frege refutes other Idealism, idealist and Materialism, materialist theories of number ...

'' and in ''

Begriffsschrift ''Begriffsschrift'' (German for, roughly, "concept-writing") is a book on logic by Gottlob Frege, published in 1879, and the formal system set out in that book. ''Begriffsschrift'' is usually translated as ''concept writing'' or ''concept notati ...

''. Frege responded to a number of aspects of this critique in 1892 with the paper "Begriff und Gegenstand" ("Concept and Object"). The controversy became known as the "concept ''horse'' problem"Ian Proops
"What is Frege's "Concept Horse" problem?"
or "Kerry's paradox."Tom Ricketts, Michael Potter 2010, p. 179.

Works

* ''Untersuchungen über das Causalproblem auf dem Boden einer Kritik der einschlägigen Lehren J. St. Mills'' 1881. * ''Grundzüge einer Theorie der mathematischen und nicht-mathematischen Grenzbegriffe. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntnistheorie'' (unpublished ''Habilitationsschrift'') * Review of "Paul du Bois-Reymond ''Allgemeine Functionentheorie. Erster Theil'' Tübingen 1882" in ''Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie'', 9, 1885, pp. 245–255. * "Ueber G. Cantor's Mannigfaltigkeitsuntersuchungen" in ''Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie'', 9 (1885), 191–232. * "Ueber