Elementer til Historiens Philosophie i Forelæsninger holdne i Vinteren 1806-1807. To Dele.

Niels Treschow (1751 - 1833) is generally accepted as the most important Norwegian philosopher before the 20th century. He played a prominent role in the development of hilosophy in Scandinavia in the late 18th and far into the 19th century. He was the first professor of Philosophy at the University of Christiania (today Oslo) (from 1813), and before that he had been professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen (from 1803 till 1813), where he played a very important role, changing the tradition of philosophy in Scandinavia by being one of the first teachers of philosophy, who was also a philosopher himself. His lectures and works were of seminal character, and his way of thinking cleared a path for later important philosophers. He became "Ridder af Dannebrog" (an honorary title, -"Knight of Dannebrog" (Dannbrog being the Danish flag), and he was a member of both the Norwegian and the Danish Academies of Science.

Treschow was especially fond of the German rationalists and romantics as well as of English Empiricism, which played a great role in his own philosophy. He was never very influenced by Kant's critical philosophy, and his own philosophy was to a large extemt governed by emotions and intuition, -he was never afraid to think according to his feelings.
Apart from being a philosopher, Treschow was also a politician of some influence under the first Norwegian government.

Treschow wrote a number of important works, the present being one of the most important ones. All of his works are scarce and sought after, and they rarely appear on the market.