Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis
of Condorcet (French: [maʁi ʒɑ̃n‿ɑ̃twan
nikola də kaʁita kɔ̃dɔʁsɛ]; 17 September
1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas
de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and
mathematician.
His ideas, including support for a liberal
economy, free and equal public instruction,
constitutional government, and equal rights
for women and people of all races, have been
said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment
and Enlightenment rationalism.
He died in prison after a period of flight
from French Revolutionary authorities.
== Early years ==
Condorcet was born in Ribemont (in present-day
Aisne), descended from the ancient family
of Caritat, who took their title from the
town of Condorcet in Dauphiné, of which they
were long-time residents.
Fatherless at a young age, he was raised by
his devoutly religious mother.
He was educated at the Jesuit College in Reims
and at the Collège de Navarre in Paris, where
he quickly showed his intellectual ability
and gained his first public distinctions in
mathematics.
When he was sixteen, his analytical abilities
gained the praise of Jean le Rond d'Alembert
and Alexis Clairaut; soon, Condorcet would
study under d'Alembert.
From 1765 to 1774, he focused on science.
In 1765, he published his first work on mathematics,
entitled Essai sur le calcul intégral, which
was well received, launching his career as
a mathematician.
He went on to publish more papers, and on
25 February 1769, he was elected to the Académie
royale des Sciences.
In 1772, he published another paper on integral
calculus.
Soon after, he met Jacques Turgot, a French
economist, and the two became friends.
Turgot became an administrator under King
Louis XV in 1772 and Controller-General of
Finance under Louis XVI in 1774.
Condorcet worked with Leonhard Euler and Benjamin
Franklin.
He soon became an honorary member of many
foreign academies and philosophic societies,
including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(1785), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(1792),
and also in Prussia and Russia
His political ideas, many in congruity with
Turgot's, were criticized heavily in the English-speaking
world, however, most notably by John Adams
who wrote two of his principal works of political
philosophy to oppose Turgot's and Condorcet's
unicameral legislature and radical democracy.
== Early political career ==
In 1774, Condorcet was appointed inspector
general of the Paris mint by Turgot.
From this point on, Condorcet shifted his
focus from the purely mathematical to philosophy
and political matters.
In the following years, he took up the defense
of human rights in general, and of women's
and Blacks' rights in particular (an abolitionist,
he became active in the Society of the Friends
of the Blacks in the 1780s).
He supported the ideals embodied by the newly
formed United States, and proposed projects
of political, administrative and economic
reforms intended to transform France.
In 1776, Turgot was dismissed as Controller
General.
Consequently, Condorcet submitted his resignation
as Inspector General of the Monnaie, but the
request was refused, and he continued serving
in this post until 1791.
Condorcet later wrote Vie de M. Turgot (1786),
a biography which spoke fondly of Turgot and
advocated Turgot's economic theories.
Condorcet continued to receive prestigious
appointments: in 1777, he became Permanent
Secretary of the Académie des Sciences, holding
the post until the abolition of the Académie
in 1793; and, in 1782, secretary of the Académie
française.
== Condorcet's paradox and the Condorcet method
==
In 1785, Condorcet wrote an essay on the application
of analysis of the probability of decisions
made on a majority vote, one of his most important
works.
This work described several now famous results,
including Condorcet's jury theorem, which
states that if each member of a voting group
is more likely than not to make a correct
decision, the probability that the highest
vote of the group is the correct decision
increases as the number of members of the
group increases, and Condorcet's paradox,
which shows that majority preferences can
become intransitive with three or more options
– it is possible for a certain electorate
to express a preference for A over B, a preference
for B over C, and a preference for C over
A, all from the same set of ballots.The paper
also outlines a generic Condorcet method,
designed to simulate pair-wise elections between
all candidates in an election.
He disagreed strongly with the alternative
method of aggregating preferences put forth
by Jean-Charles de Borda (based on summed
rankings of alternatives).
Condorcet was one of the first to systematically
apply mathematics in the social sciences.
== Other works ==
In 1781, Condorcet wrote a pamphlet, Reflections
on Negro Slavery, in which he denounced slavery.
In 1786, Condorcet worked on ideas for the
differential and integral calculus, giving
a new treatment of infinitesimals – a work
which was never printed.
In 1789, he published Vie de Voltaire (1789),
which agreed with Voltaire in his opposition
to the Church.
In 1791, Condorcet, along with Sophie de Grouchy,
Thomas Paine, Etienne Dumont, Jacques-Pierre
Brissot, and Achilles Duchastellet published
a brief journal titled Le Républicain, its
main goal being the promotion of republicanism
and the rejection of constitutional monarchy.
The journal's theme was that any sort of monarchy
is a threat to freedom no matter who is leading
and that liberty is freedom from domination.In
1795, Condorcet had a book published called
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress
of the Human Mind.
It dealt with theoretical thought on perfecting
the human mind and analyzing intellectual
history based on social arithmetic.
Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle
of Population (1798) partly in response to
Condorcet's views on the "perfectibility of
society."
== French Revolution ==
=== 
Deputy ===
Condorcet took a leading role when the French
Revolution swept France in 1789, hoping for
a rationalist reconstruction of society, and
championed many liberal causes.
As a result, in 1791 he was elected as a Paris
representative in the Legislative Assembly,
and then became the secretary of the Assembly.
In April 1792 Condorcet presented a project
for the reformation of the education system,
aiming to create a hierarchical system, under
the authority of experts, who would work as
the guardians of the Enlightenment and who,
independent of power, would be the guarantors
of public liberties.
The project was judged to be contrary to the
republican and egalitarian virtues, giving
the education of the Nation over to an aristocracy
of savants.
The institution adopted Condorcet's design
for the state education system, and he drafted
a proposed Bourbon Constitution for the new
France.
He advocated women's suffrage for the new
government, writing an article for Journal
de la Société de 1789, and by publishing
De l'admission des femmes au droit de cité
("For the Admission to the Rights of Citizenship
For Women") in 1790.Condorcet was not affiliated
with any political party but counted many
friends among the Girondins.
He distanced himself from them during the
National Convention, however, due to his distaste
for their factionalism.
At the Trial of Louis XVI, Condorcet, who
opposed the death penalty albeit supporting
the trial itself, spoke out against the execution
of the King during the public vote at the
Convention – he proposed to send the king
to the galleys.
Condorcet was on the Constitution Committee
and was the main author of the Girondin constitutional
project.
The constitution was not put to vote.
When the Montagnards gained control of the
Convention, they wrote their own, the French
Constitution of 1793.
Condorcet criticized the new work, and as
a result, he was branded a traitor.
On 3 October 1793, a warrant was issued for
Condorcet's arrest.
=== Arrest and death ===
The warrant forced Condorcet into hiding.
He hid for five (or eight) months in the house
of Mme.
Vernet, on Rue Servandoni, in Paris.
It was there that he wrote Esquisse d'un tableau
historique des progrès de l'esprit humain
(Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress
of the Human Spirit), which was published
posthumously in 1795 and is considered one
of the major texts of the Enlightenment and
of historical thought.
It narrates the history of civilization as
one of progress in the sciences, shows the
intimate connection between scientific progress
and the development of human rights and justice,
and outlines the features of a future rational
society entirely shaped by scientific knowledge.On
25 March 1794 Condorcet, convinced he was
no longer safe, left his hideout and attempted
to flee Paris.
He went to seek refuge at the house of Jean-Baptiste
Suard, a friend of his with whom he had resided
in 1772, but he was refused on the basis that
he would be betrayed by one of their residents.
Two days later, he was arrested in Clamart
and imprisoned in Bourg-la-Reine (or, as it
was known during the Revolution, Bourg-l'Égalité,
"Equality Borough" rather than "Queen's Borough")
where, after another two days, he was found
dead in his cell.
The most widely accepted theory is that his
friend, Pierre Jean George Cabanis, gave him
a poison which he eventually used.
However, some historians believe that he may
have been murdered (perhaps because he was
too loved and respected to be executed).
Jean-Pierre Brancourt (in his work L'élite,
la mort et la révolution) claims that Condorcet
was killed with a mixture of Datura stramonium
and opium.
Condorcet was symbolically interred in the
Panthéon in 1989, in honour of the bicentennial
of the French Revolution and Condorcet's role
as a central figure in the Enlightenment.
His coffin, however, was empty as his remains,
originally interred in the common cemetery
of Bourg-la-Reine, were lost during the nineteenth
century.
== Family ==
In 1786 Condorcet married Sophie de Grouchy,
who was more than twenty years his junior.
Sophie, reckoned one of the most beautiful
women of the day, became an accomplished salon
hostess as Madame de Condorcet, and also an
accomplished translator of Thomas Paine and
Adam Smith.
She was intelligent and well educated, fluent
in both English and Italian.
The marriage was a strong one, and Sophie
visited her husband regularly while he remained
in hiding.
Although she began proceedings for divorce
in January 1794, it was at the insistence
of Condorcet and Cabanis, who wished to protect
their property from expropriation and to provide
financially for Sophie and their young daughter,
Louise 'Eliza' Alexandrine.
Condorcet was survived by his widow and four-year-old
Eliza.
Sophie died in 1822, never having remarried,
and having published all her husband's works
between 1801 and 1804.
Her work was carried on by Eliza, wife of
former United Irishman Arthur O'Connor.
The Condorcet-O'Connors published a revised
edition between 1847 and 1849.
== Gender equality ==
Condorcet's work was mainly focused on a quest
for a more egalitarian society.
This path led him to think and write about
gender equality in the Revolutionary context.
In 1790, he published "De l'admission des
femmes au droit de cité"("On the Admission
of Women to the Rights of Citizenship") in
which he strongly advocated for women's suffrage
in the new Republic as well as the enlargement
of basic political and social rights to include
women.
One of the most famous Enlightenment thinkers
at the time, he was one of the first to make
such a radical proposal.
A visionary, he identified gender as a social
construction based on perceived differences
in sex and rejected biological determinism
as being able to explain gender relations
in society.
He denounced patriarchal norms of oppression,
present at every institutional level, and
continuously subjugating and marginalising
women.
Like fellow Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques
Rousseau in his book Emile ou De l'Education
(1762), Condorcet identified education as
crucial to the emancipation of individuals.
He stated: "I believe that all other differences
between men and women are simply the result
of education″.
He saw it as the only solution for women to
deconstruct gender roles and promote another
kind of masculinity, not based on violence,
virility and the subjugation of women but
rather on shared attributes such as reason
and intelligence.
In her book "Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism",
Hooks calls this new concept "feminine masculinity",
″new models of self‐assertion that do
not require the construction of an enemy 'other,'
be it a woman or the symbolic feminine, for
them to define themselves against″.Condorcet's
whole plea for gender equality is founded
on the recognition that the attribution of
rights and authority comes from the false
assumption that men possess reason and women
do not.
This is, according to Nall, an obvious example
of an individual practising and advocating
this feminist masculinity.
As such, women should enjoy the same fundamental
"natural right".
Scholars often disagree on the true impact
that Condorcet's work had on pre-modern feminist
thinking.
His detractors point out that when he was
eventually given some responsibilities in
the constitutional drafting process, his convictions
did not translate into concrete political
action and made limited efforts to push these
issues on the agenda.
Some scholars on the other hand, believe that
this lack of action is not due to the weakness
of his commitment but rather to the political
atmosphere at the time and the absence of
political appetite for gender equality on
the part of decision-makers.
Along with authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft,
d'Alembert or Olympe de Gouges, Condorcet
made a lasting contribution to the pre-feminist
debate.
== The Idea of Progress ==
Condorcet's Sketch for a Historical Picture
of the Progress of the Human Spirit (1795)
was perhaps the most influential formulation
of the idea of progress ever written.
It made the Idea of Progress a central concern
of Enlightenment thought.
He argued that expanding knowledge in the
natural and social sciences would lead to
an ever more just world of individual freedom,
material affluence, and moral compassion.
He argued for three general propositions:
that the past revealed an order that could
be understood in terms of the progressive
development of human capabilities, showing
that humanity's "present state, and those
through which it has passed, are a necessary
constitution of the moral composition of humankind";
that the progress of the natural sciences
must be followed by progress in the moral
and political sciences "no less certain, no
less secure from political revolutions"; that
social evils are the result of ignorance and
error rather than an inevitable consequence
of human nature.Condorcet's writings were
a key contribution to the French Enlightenment,
particularly his work on the Idea of Progress.
Condorcet believed that through the use of
our senses and communication with others,
knowledge could be compared and contrasted
as a way of analyzing our systems of belief
and understanding.
None of Condorcet's writings refer to a belief
in a religion or a god who intervenes in human
affairs.
Condorcet instead frequently had written of
his faith in humanity itself and its ability
to progress with the help of philosophers
such as Aristotle.
Through this accumulation and sharing of knowledge
he believed it was possible for any man to
comprehend all the known facts of the natural
world.
The enlightenment of the natural world spurred
the desire for enlightenment of the social
and political world.
Condorcet believed that there was no definition
of the perfect human existence and thus believed
that the progression of the human race would
inevitably continue throughout the course
of our existence.
He envisioned man as continually progressing
toward a perfectly utopian society.
He believed in the great potential towards
growth that man possessed.
However, Condorcet stressed that for this
to be a possibility man must unify regardless
of race, religion, culture or gender.
To this end, he became a member of the French
Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the
Friends of the Blacks).
He wrote a set of rules for the Society of
the Friends of the Blacks which detailed the
reasoning and goals behind the organization
along with describing the injustice of slavery
and put in a statement calling for the abolition
of the slave trade as the first step to true
abolition.Condorcet was also a strong proponent
of women's civil rights.
He claimed that women were equal to men in
nearly every aspect and asked why then should
they be debarred from their fundamental civil
rights; the few differences that existed were
due to the fact that women were limited by
their lack of rights.
Condorcet even mentioned several women who
were more capable then average men, such as
Queen Elizabeth and Maria-Theresa.
== 
Civic duty ==
For Condorcet's republicanism the nation needed
enlightened citizens and education needed
democracy to become truly public.
Democracy implied free citizens, and ignorance
was the source of servitude.
Citizens had to be provided with the necessary
knowledge to exercise their freedom and understand
the rights and laws that guaranteed their
enjoyment.
Although education could not eliminate disparities
in talent, all citizens, including women,
had the right to free education.
In opposition to those who relied on revolutionary
enthusiasm to form the new citizens, Condorcet
maintained that revolution was not made to
last and that revolutionary institutions were
not intended to prolong the revolutionary
experience but to establish political rules
and legal mechanisms that would insure future
changes without revolution.
In a democratic city there would be no Bastille
to be seized.
Public education would form free and responsible
citizens, not revolutionaries.
== Evaluation ==
Rothschild (2001) argues that Condorcet has
been seen since the 1790s as the embodiment
of the cold, rational Enlightenment.
However she suggests his writings on economic
policy, voting, and public instruction indicate
different views both of Condorcet and of the
Enlightenment.
Condorcet was concerned with individual diversity;
he was opposed to proto-utilitarian theories;
he considered individual independence, which
he described as the characteristic liberty
of the moderns, to be of central political
importance; and he opposed the imposition
of universal and eternal principles.
His efforts to reconcile the universality
of some values with the diversity of individual
opinions are of continuing interest.
He emphasizes the institutions of civilized
or constitutional conflict, recognizes conflicts
or inconsistencies within individuals, and
sees moral sentiments as the foundation of
universal values.
His difficulties call into question some familiar
distinctions, for example between French,
German, and English-Scottish thought, and
between the Enlightenment and the counter-Enlightenment.
There was substantial continuity between Condorcet's
criticism of the economic ideas of the 1760s
and the liberal thought of the early 19th
century.The Lycée Condorcet in the rue du
Havre, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris,
is named in his honour, as are streets in
many French cities.
== Bibliography ==
Condorcet: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts
in the History of Political Thought) edited
by Steven Lukes, and Nadia Urbinati (2012)
== See also ==
History of the metre
Seconds pendulum
Society of the Friends of Truth
