Niels Nicolas Treschow (5 September 1751 – 22 September 1833) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

philosopher, educator and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

Biography

Treschow was born in Strømsø, now part of

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

. He was the son of Peter Treschow (1718-1773) who was a merchant. He took his student examation in 1766 and was awarded a

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in philosophy in 1774. Treschow was rector at the Trondheim Cathedral School from 1774-1780 and later served as an educator in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He became a professor at the newly established

University of Oslo 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 1813 and as one of initially only five professors was influential in forming the university during its first period. Today, the main building of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo bears his name.''Niels Treschows hus'' (University of Oslo)
/ref> He served as Minister of Education and Church Affairs 1814–1816, 1817–1819, 1820–1822 and 1823–1825, and member of the Council of State Division in Stockholm 1816–1817, 1819–1820, and 1822–1823. He was elected a member of the

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...

in 1790. In 1825, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was decorated with both theCommander's Cross of the

Order of the North Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star (Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of the ...

and the Knight's Cross of Order of the Dannebrog.

Selected works

*''Forsøg om Guds tilværelse af theoretiske grunde: i anledning af den kantiske philosophie'' (1794) *''Philosophiske Forsøg'' (1805) *''Moral for Folk og Stat'' (1810–12) *''Om Philosophiens Natur og Dele: en dogmatisk og historisk Indledning til denne Videnskab'' (1811) *''Om den menneskelige Natur i Almindelighed, især dens aandelige Side'' (1812) *''Almindelig Logik' (1813) *''Christendommens Aand, eller Den evangeliske Lære: frimodig og upartisk beskreven'' (1828)

References

Other sources

*Christophersen, H. O (1977) ''Niels Treschow, 1751-1833: En tenker mellom to tidsaldrer'' (Grøndahl & Søn Forlag)
Norway and the Norwegians, ''Treschow —His writings — Anthropology — Eilschow''
by

Robert Gordon Latham Robert Gordon Latham FRS (24 March 1812 – 9 March 1888) was an English ethnologist and philologist. Early life The eldest son of Thomas Latham, vicar of Billingborough, Lincolnshire, he was born there on 24 March 1812. He entered Eton College ...

, (published 1840 by R. Bentley in London) pp. 149–153.

External links

Treschows gate (Oslo)
1751 births 1833 deaths People from Drammen Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog 19th-century Norwegian politicians Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian philosophers Rectors of the University of Copenhagen Knights of the Order of Charles XIII Ministers of Education of Norway {{Norway-philosopher-stub