Vasile Conta

{{Short description|Romanian philosopher, poet, and politician}}

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Image:Posta Romana - stamp - Vasile Conta 2398.jpg

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Vasile Conta ({{IPA|ro|vaˈsile ˈkonta}}; {{langx|hy|Վասիլե Գրիգորեիի Կոնտա (Գոնտա)}}; November 15, 1845 – April 21, 1882) was a Romanian philosopher, poet, and politician.

The son of a priest, he was born in Ghindăoani, a village in Bălțătești commune, Neamț County. He attended primary school in Târgu Neamț (where he was a classmate of Ion Creangă), and graduated from the Academia Mihăileană in Iași in 1868. Beneficiary of a fellowship, he went to study in 1871 in Belgium, first in Antwerp, and then at the Free University of Bruxelles, from which he graduated with a law degree in 1872. Upon returning to Romania, he was appointed professor at the University of Iași's Law School.{{cite web|url=http://150.uaic.ro/personalitati/filosofie-si-stiinte-social-politice/vasile-conta/|title=Vasile Conta|lang=ro|website=uaic.ro|publisher=Alexandru Ioan Cuza University|access-date=June 22, 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://romanian-philosophy.ro/encyclopedia/conta-vasile/|title=Conta, Vasile|language=ro|first=Mihai|last=Popa|website=romanian-philosophy.ro|access-date=November 4, 2024}} In 1873, he started attending the meetings of the Junimea literary society, where he gave lectures.

In 1877, Conta was elected deputy in the Romanian Parliament, and in 1880 he was briefly Minister of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs in the Ion C. Brătianu government. In 1881, he resigned his faculty position at the University of Iași and was elected a member of the Court of Cassation. On the occasion of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, he took a stand against the seizure by the Russian Empire of the three counties of Southern Bessarabia.

He died in Bucharest and was buried at Eternitatea Cemetery in Iași. A high school in Târgu Neamț,{{cite web|url=https://liceulvasileconta.ro/|title=Liceul "Vasile Conta" – Târgu Neamț|language=ro|website=liceulvasileconta.ro|access-date=November 4, 2024}} as well as streets in Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iași, and Sector 1 of Bucharest are named after him.