The Elements of Metaphysics course of the monk-philosopher Eufrosin Poteca (1786-1858) was taught starting from the school year 1825-1826, in the cells of the "St. Sava" Monastery in Bucharest. His metaphysics is inspired by the work of Francesco Soave, Instituzione di logica, metafisica ed etica (1814) and was written for didactic needs, more precisely, as a supplement to the work Filosofia cuvântului (1829) by Johann Gotlieb Heineccius, after which he took his philosophy courses and where there was no chapter devoted to metaphysics. This metaphysics offered Poteca an easy-to-assimilate concept of philosophy, impregnated with scientism and built on the basis of critical reason, but without departing from the principles of faith or taking the church in return. If Dimitrie Cantemir and Samuil Micu are the first Romanians to give us a metaphysics conceived "from foreign languages", on the other hand, the metaphysics of Professor Eufrosin Poteca is made for didactic use and is written in the "language of the motherland". Adrian Michiduţă
