Research Seminar November 13th: Martin Herrnstadt - The Empire of the Self and its Administrator: Joseph-Marie de Gérando (1772-1842) and the Science of Man in France around 1800

Joseph-Marie de Gérando (1772-1842) was a philosophical as well as political shooting star the moment the first French Republic fell to pieces. He wrote the first comprehensive history of philosophy in French language (1804) and introduced Kant to a French audience as early as 1799. He is best known as a key figure in the ephemeral existence of the Society of the observers of man (1799-1804). Less familiar are his concurrent activities as functionary of the state, founder of various associations, secretary general of the ministry of interior and later as imperial administrator in occupied Italy and Catalonia. In my lecture I would like to discuss the relationship between the science of man and the administrative reform of imperial France; between state power and private initiative; political economy and moral reform – relations that had to be established through – what Gérando termed – “the empire of the self” (l'empire de soi-même).