Related Links in the Library:
David M. Hart, "Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)"
Condorcet was born in Ribemont,
Picardy on September 17, 1743 and died in Bourg-la-Reine on March 29, 1794.
He was a mathematician, a philosophe (he was friends D'Alembert, Voltaire,
and Turgot), permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences (from 1776),
and a politician during the French Revolution (he was elected to the Legislative
Assembly in 1791 and later appointed its President, then a member of Convention
in 1792). He was active in a number of committees which drew up legislation
during the Revolution (especially on public education and constitutional reform)
but became a victim of Jacobin repression when the liberal Girondin group was
expelled from the Convention. After a period of hiding in late 1793, during
which he wrote his most famous work Sketch for a Historical Picture of the
Progress of the Human Mind (July 1793-March 1794), he was arrested and
died under suspicious circumstances. It is possible he committed suicide or
was murdered by the Jacobins.
Condorcet was educated at a Jesuit school in Rheims and received a rigorous
scientific education at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris.
His initial research was in the areas of calculus and probability theory, but
he later attempted to apply mathematics to the study of human behaviour and
political organisations in order to create a "social arithmetic of man".
His Essai sur l'application de l'analyse à la probabilité des
decisions rendues à la pluralité des voix (1785) was an attempt
to show how the mathematics of probability could be used to make political
decision making more rational and hence more enlightened. Condorcet wrote articles
on this subject for a Supplement to Diderot's Encyclopedia (1784-89).
When Turgot became Controller-General and attempted to free up the grain trade
and deregulate the French economy in 1774-76, Condorcet lent his whole-hearted
support. He was appointed by Turgot to the post of Inspecteur des Monnaies
in 1774 and wrote numerous pamphlets defending laissez-faire reform such as
the abolition of forced labour (the corvée) and seigneurial dues. His Vie
de M. Turgot (1786) is a spirited defence of Turgot and the continuing
need for free market policies in spite of Turgot's failure to overcome the
entrenched vested interests opposed to any reform of the French economy.
Condorcet also advocated other enlightened reforms of French society, such
as reform of the criminal justice system, the granting of civic rights to Protestants,
and the abolition of slavery. With his wife, Sophie de Grouchy (whom he married
1786), Condorcet ran an important salon for the liberal elite of Paris where
the these issues were discussed, as well as the progress of the new American
republic and the future role of provincial assemblies in a politically reformed
During the early phase of the French Revolution Condorcet joined other moderate
liberal reformers in the Society of Thirty (for whom he helped draw up cahiers
or demands for liberal reform which were presented to the Estates General)
and the Society of 1789 (whose members included the marquis de Lafayette and
Dupont de Nemours). Condorcet edited the journal of the latter group and it
was here that he published the very important essay On the Admission of
Women to the Rights of Citizenship in 1790. Condorcet was elected to represent
Paris in the Legislative Assembly in 1791 but broke with the moderate liberals
over the issue of curtailing the power of the monarchy. He joined the moderate
republicans Brissot and Thomas Paine in calling for the end of the monarchy
and the introduction of a republican constitution. He served on the Legislative
Assembly's Committee on Public Instruction and wrote their report in April
1792 but which was not adopted until 1795 after his death.
Condorcet was also a member of the Convention (representing the Aisne) which
tried and then executed the King. He voted for deposing the king but against
his execution. In February 1793 Condorcet presented a constitutional plan to
the Convention's Constitutional Committee based upon his idea of using mathematics
to create a rational and representative elected body which would serve the
interests of all the people and prevent one small group from seizing control.
His constitutional plan fell victim to the power struggle going on in the Convention
between the liberal Girondins and the radical Jacobins. When leading Girondins
were expelled from the Convention, Condorcet protested and then had to go into
hiding to avoid arrest. Over the next few months he wrote his best known work, Esquisse
d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain (1795) which
shows firstly, how human beings have been able to improve their situation over
the centuries through the use of reason, technology and liberty, and secondly,
how in the near future (the 10th stage of his Sketch) a veritable
liberal utopia might be created. He left his hiding place in March 1794 and
was soon arrested, dying in prison after 2 days in captivity under suspicious
Works by the Author
Condorcet, Reflections on Criminal Jurisprudence (1775)
Condorcet, Letters on the Grain Trade (1775)
Condorcet, Reflections on Black Slavery (1781, 1788)
Condorcet, Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Theory of Decision-Making (1785)
Condorcet, On the Influence of the American Revolution on Europe (1786)
Condorcet, Essay on the Constitution and Functions of Provincial Assemblies (1788)
Condorcet, On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship (1790)
Condorcet, The Nature and Purpose of Public Instruction (1791-2)
Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human
Works about the Author
Badinter, Elisabeth and Robert Badinter, Condorcet (1743-1794): Un intellectuel
en politique. Paris: Fayard, 1988.
Baker, Keith Michael, Condorce: From Natural Philosophy to Social Mathematics.
University of Chicago Press, 1975.
Condorcet, Selected Writings, ed. Keith Michael Baker. Indianapolis: