Ioan Zalomit

Ioan Zalomit (1823–1885) was a Romanian philosopher, professor and rector of the University of Bucharest.

Ioan Zalomit was born in Bucharest, in a family of merchants. His parents were probably of Greek origin, but they were born in Wallachia.

He began his education in private schools, probably French, and achieved his formation in France, at the University of Paris and later in Germany, at the University of Berlin. He obtained the title of doctor of philosophy at this later university, in 1848, with a dissertation on Kant's philosophy.

Zalomit began teaching philosophy at the Saint Sava Academy. When the University of Bucharest was established, in 1864, he was appointed Professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Letters. He held the office of rector of the university between May 1871 - April 1885. In 1882 he became a member of the Permanent Council of Public Instruction, and in 1885 he was elected vice-president of this institution.

Like other translators, Zalomit contributed to the creation of a modern Romanian philosophical terminology and to the diffusion of philosophical ideas in the Romanian society. The textbook of Antoine Charma (1801–1869) that he translated introduced in Romania the eclecticism of Victor Cousin, whose disciple Charma was. This work proposed the following disciplinary division of the philosophy: psychology, logic, morals, theodicy and history of philosophy. By means of the translation of Charma's handbook, Zalomit introduces for the first time in Romania the history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline.

His dissertation from 1848 is the first exegesis of Kant's philosophy written by a Romanian. Although the Kantianism was at that time known to Romanians from different courses and textbooks (of Daniil Philippidis, Gheorghe Lazăr, Eufrosin Poteca, Eftimie Murgu, August Treboniu Laurian, Simeon Bărnuţiu, and of course that of Zalomit himself), there were still no monographs on this subject. Zalomit places Kant in the historical context of the modern philosophy, presenting the main figures of the empiricist and rationalist traditions. He considers that Kant is a spiritual successor of Descartes, and that he accomplished the program set forth, but unrealised, by Descartes.

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