Gérando, Joseph Marie de

Gérando, Joseph Marie de (zhôzĕf` märē` də zhāräNdō`), 1772–1842, French philosopher and political figure. Joining the insurrection in Lyons against the French Revolutionary government, he was captured and condemned to death (1793) but escaped abroad. Under the empire of Napoleon I, he held administrative offices in France, Italy, and Spain. A member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences from 1832, he was made a peer in 1837. A major philanthropist, he did much for the education of the working classes and of deaf-mutes. His philosophical writings are partly based on the system of Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.