Wölfflin's principal philosophy mentor at the University of Munich, where Wölfflin got his doctoral degree, was the renowned professor of archaeology Heinrich Brunn. Greatly influenced by his mentors, particularly neo-Kantian Johannes Volkelt ("Der Symbolbegriff") and Heinrich Brunn, his dissertation, "Prolegomena zu einer Psychologie der Architektur" (1886) attempted to show that architecture had a basis in form through the empathetic response of human form. It is considered now to be one of the founding texts of the emerging discipline of art history, although it was barely noted when it was published.