Condorcet, Marie‐Jean, Marquis de (1743–94)

Abstract

A celebrated mathematician and philosopher, Condorcet was permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences (from 1776), Inspector General of the Mint under Louis XVI, and, uniquely among the philosophes , a politician during the French Revolution. He argued in various works for laissez‐faire policies, for women's rights and the rights of Protestants, for reform of the criminal justice system, for free public education, and for the abolition of slavery. Condorcet was the last important figure of the French Enlightenment.