Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando

Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando, born Joseph Marie Degérando (29 February 1772 in Lyon, France – 10 November 1842 in Paris), 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 (Comparative History of philosophical systems, considered in relation to the principles of human knowledge) as well as his 1820 study of benevolent activity, Le visiteur du pauvre (The visitor to the poor). 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.

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