Marquis de Condorcet 1743 – 1794
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, mathematician, and political theorist of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. A pioneer of probability theory and social mathematics, he produced the first systematic argument for the indefinite progress of the human mind. He was a lifelong defender of the rights of women, of religious minorities, and of the abolition of slavery. Persecuted during the Terror, he wrote his great Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind in hiding and died in prison in 1794.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Enlightenment
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Marquis de Condorcet:
“The progress of the human mind is indefinite.”
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Attributed to Marquis de Condorcet:
“All the errors in politics and morals are based on philosophical errors.”
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Attributed to Marquis de Condorcet:
“Reason has its rights, and the rights of reason are imprescriptible.”
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Attributed to Marquis de Condorcet:
“Time is at hand when the sun will shine only on free men, who acknowledge no other master than reason.”
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Attributed to Marquis de Condorcet:
“Whatever advances the rights of any human being is a blessing for all human beings.”