Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando

Who was Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando?

Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando, born Joseph Marie Degérando was a French jurist, philanthropist and philosopher of Italian descent.

He is most remembered for his 1804 book Histoire comparée des systèmes de philosophie, considérés relativement aux principes des connaissances humaines as well as his 1820 study of benevolent activity, Le visiteur du pauvre. He influenced Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and especially Ralph Waldo Emerson who used his philosophical framework extensively in support of his own first book Nature.