Marquis de Condorcet: French (sep 17, 1743 – mar 29, 1794)
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French philosopher of the Enlightenment and advocate of educational reform and women’s rights. He was one of the major Revolutionary formulators of the ideas of progress, or the indefinite perfectibility of humankind.In 1769 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, to which he contributed papers on mathematical and other subjects.
- He is well known for writing on the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. In 1791 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and later to the National Convention.
- Condorcet also advocated universal primary school education and the establishment of a self-regulating educational system under the control of a National Society of Sciences and Arts to protect education from political pressures.
- He also proposed a new constitution, establishing universal male suffrage, proportional representation, and local self-government, bu they were set aside by the Jacobin-dominated National Convention, which considered it too moderate.
- He also voted against the death penalty for Louis XVI, showing his democratic thinking
- He went into hiding in the home of a close friend, Madame Varnet, where he wrote the Sketch of an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, his most famous and most optimistic work (it was based on the utilitarian conviction that invention and progressive thought arise out of social need. According to Condorcet, the future progress of reason had become inevitable with the invention of the printing press and the advances in science and criticism).
- Condorcet affirmed woman's equal humanity on the grounds of reason and justice. He attributed women's limitations, to the extent they existed, not to their sex but rather to their inferior education and circumstances.
- science trumps religion
- everyone deserves equality including women
- laws are necessary to keep the monarchy in check and keep peace/order
- science is necessary to keep society truthful and balanced
- The catholic church should not have so much power because science has proven there is no God
- Men should respect each others ideas and collaborate for the good of society as a whole. Discourse is common, but men should be able to adapt and hear all sides of an argument before making a decision.
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