Marcus Jacob Monrad (19 January 1816 – 30 December 1897) was a Norwegian philosopher, a university professor for more than 40 years. He was born in

Nøtterøy Nøtterøy is an island and a former municipality in the present-day municipality of Færder in Vestfold and Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Borgheim. The parish of ''Nøtterø'' was estab ...

to parish priest Peder Monrad and Severine Elisabeth Ambroe, and grew up in Mo in

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

. He graduated as

cand.theol. Candidatus theologiæ (male), Candidata theologiæ (female), abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six-year higher education in theology in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. In Norway, the title has re ...

in 1840, and was appointed professor at the

Royal Frederick University The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1851. Around 1850 he published three textbooks for the

examen philosophicum Examen philosophicum (Latin for ''philosophic exam''; abbreviated to ''Ex.phil.'') is, together with Examen facultatum, one of two academic exams in most undergraduate programmes at Norwegian universities. Whereas ''Examen facultatum'' aims at te ...

, which were used for these courses during the rest of the 19th century. Monrad took part in contemporary debates and had significant influence, but was also controversial. He is portrayed in

Arne Garborg Arne Garborg (born Aadne Eivindsson Garborg) (25 January 1851 – 14 January 1924) was a Norwegian writer. Garborg championed the use of Landsmål (now known as Nynorsk, or New Norwegian), as a literary language; he translated the Odyssey into i ...

's 1883 novel ''Bondestudentar'' and in

Alexander Kielland Alexander Lange Kielland (; 18 February 1849 – 6 April 1906) was a Norwegian realistic writer of the 19th century. He is one of the so-called "The Four Greats" of Norwegian literature, along with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and ...

's 1888 comedy ''Professoren''.

References

1816 births 1897 deaths People from Nøtterøy People from Tokke Norwegian philosophers University of Oslo faculty {{Norway-philosopher-stub