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The problem of secondary qualities emerges from a clash between our ordinary and scientific beliefs. Our perception shows us a world containing sensory qualities such as colours, sounds, etc.: a sensible world. However, physics teaches us that the world is just a dark and silent heap of particles; colours, sounds, etc., are only derived “secondary” qualities, mere appearances arising from the action of the physical “primary” qualities on our senses. Hence the problem: Do colours, sounds, etc., exist independently of us, and if not, to what extent do their appearances provide us with an adequate knowledge of reality?

This project will develop a “network history of philosophy.” This approach does not focus on “big names”, but on series of authors; it starts from specific problems and explores the various solutions that members of a certain tradition gave to them. This will show that the problem of secondary qualities did not only find an interesting treatment in major figures of the Brentano School – e.g. Brentano, Husserl, and Meinong – but that there are also other, less well-known heroes in this story, such as Conrad-Martius, Geiger, or Höfler. This will contribute to a broader, topical programme of rewriting the canon in the history of philosophy.