Intention to Consume Franz Brentano's Intentionality and Carl Menger's Doctrine of Subjective Value

This article examines two key research questions. First, it explores the philosophical and theoretical relationship between Carl Menger's theory of subjective value and Franz Brentano's concept of intentionality, despite the lack of direct archival evidence linking the two thinkers. While their ideas have been extensively studied, the conceptual and historical connections between them remain under-explored. By focusing on shared intellectual traditions, particularly Aristotelian thought and their engagement with psychology, this study aims to bridge this gap. Second, the article investigates how Menger's and Brentano's approaches contribute to a theoretical framework for understanding modern consumer behaviour. Menger's emphasis on individual needs and preferences intersects with Brentano's concept of intentionality, which highlights the directedness of mental phenomena. This study analyses how these perspectives inform consumer society by examining the intentional relationship between the consumer subject and objects of consumption. Rather than solely establishing a link between Brentano and Menger, the objective is to propose an alternative analysis of consumer culture beyond postmodern or psychoanalytic approaches, using Brentano's theory of intentionality and Menger's subjective value theory.