▷ Marie Antoine Condorcet - PhilosophyProfessor.com

Marie-Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794).

Table of Contents

1 Ideas
2 Biography
3 Major Works of Marie Antoine Condorcet
- 3.1 Related:
4 Videos
5 Related Products

Ideas

– There is limited certainty in all branches of human knowledge.

– Probability theory can be applied to natural and social sciences.

– Mankind is infinitely perfectible.

– There can be continuous progress and improvement in human affairs.

– Mathematics can be applied to the social sciences and to human problems.

– Human suffering can be ameliorated through social scientific study.

– There are rational and scientific reasons why slavery should be abolished.

– There is a reasonable basis for decision making in human affairs.

Biography

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet was born at Ribemont, Picardy, France. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Reims and at the College of Navarre in Paris.

At the age of sixteen, his mathematical abilities gained the praise of Dâ€™Alembert and Clairaut. A few years later he published a book on the integral calculus. He became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1769. In 1785, he published a book on the calculus of probability and an important essay on the application of this to deciding the validity of majority decisions in various voting methods. His interests, however, were much broader than mathematics. Through his friendship with the economist Turgot, he became inspector-general of the mint. He moved in the same social circles as Voltaire. He published letters on the corn laws and on theology. He worked for the suppression of slavery.

He welcomed the French Revolution, writing pamphlets supporting democracy and proposing a new constitution. He became a member of the municipality of Paris in 1790, represented Paris in the legislative assembly, and became one of its secretaries. In this capacity he was the principal author of the address to the European powers when they threatened wage war against the new French democracy. As a member of the committee for public instruction, he drew up a plan for the organization of a comprehensive system of state education. In 1791, he announced his support for a republican form of government, ahead of such groups as the Jacobin Club.

His criticism of the death penalty urged for Louis XVI and his objection to the assumption of judicial functions by the political Convention, led to his condemnation as an enemy of the Republic. He fled into hiding at the home of Madame Vernet, who with his wife and friends persuaded him to write, under difficult conditions, his main work, A Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, and some essays. For his own safety, he was kept as a prisoner in the house. When he eventually escaped from his friends, he was captured by villagers who, recognizing the marks of gentility and education, assumed he was an enemy of the Republic and imprisoned him. He was found dead shortly afterwards.

Major Works of Marie Antoine Condorcet

– Reflections on Black Slavery (1781)
– La Vie de M. Turgot (1786)
– Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795)

Marie Antoine Condorcet

Ideas

Biography

Major Works of Marie Antoine Condorcet

Related:

Videos

Related Products

Réponse À La Lettre Écrite Par Un Théologien /marquis De Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat/à L'auteur Du Dictionnaire Des Trois ... Sabatier, De Castres/.... (French Edition)

Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind

The Works of Marquis de Condorcet (3 Books With Active Table of Contents)

Biographie de Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet ... (French Edition)

A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu’s ’Spirit of Laws’, To which are annexed, Observations on the Thirty First Book by the late M. Condorcet; and Two ... same Work (With Active Table of Contents)

Eloge [by Condorcet] et Pensees de Pascal : Nouvelle edition commentee, corrigee et augmentee par M. de *** [Voltaire]

Politique de Condorcet (PETITE BIBLIOTHEQUE PAYOT)

Reflexiones sobre la esclavitud de los negros (Los ilustrados) (French Edition)

Sophie de Grouchy's Letters on Sympathy: A Critical Engagement with Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Oxford New Histories of Philosophy)

Bosquejo de un cuadro histórico de los progresos del espíritu humano y otros textos (Politica y Derecho) (Spanish Edition)