Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet

French philosopher and humanist

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Harry Burrows Acton

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History

Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (born September 17, 1743, Ribemont, France—died March 29, 1794, Bourg-la-Reine) was a 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. He was descended from the ancient family of Caritat, who took their title from Condorcet, a town in Dauphiné. He was educated at the Jesuit...