Meinong was one of the great philosophers who stand at the beginning of Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology. He was a contemporary of Husserl, Frege, Mach, and Russell who were either originally mathematicians or physicists, except Meinong. Meinong was a historian and always a philosopher who became increasingly interested in experimental psychology, under the influence of Franz Brentano. He, as each of his contemporaries, developed his own philosophy. It grew, in a profound fashion, into a very rich realism which was, curiously enough - based on a staunch empirical attitude.