Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet (1743–1794)

Nicolas de Condorcet, marquis de Condorcet, was born to an ancient aristocratic family in Ribemont, France. He was educated at the Jesuit college in Reims and at the College of Navarre in Paris. In 1765, he published his first work on mathematics, launching his career as a mathematician. He was elected in 1769 to the Royal Academy of Sciences, to which he contributed papers on mathematical and other subjects. Condorcet worked with and befriended many scientists, including Leonhard Euler and Benjamin Franklin. He was a protégé of the French philosopher and mathematician Jean Le Rond d'Alembert and took an active role in the preparation of the Encyclopédie. He was elected to the Académie française in 1782 and became a member of other European academies. In 1786 he married Sophie de Grouchy, with whom he formed a remarkable intellectual as well as a romantic partnership. They shared the same deeply-held democratic convictions and an optimistic view of human nature. Sophie's salon at the Hôtel des Monnaies was one of the most famous of the time, attracting foreign dignitaries and intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Condorcet's views favoring women's suffrage, opposing slavery, and promoting equal rights and free public education for all, were unique even during the Enlightenment. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, which the Condorcets greeted with enthusiasm, he took a leading role. He was elected to represent Paris in the Legislative Assembly and became its secretary. Condorcet was one of the first to call for France to become a republic, and in August 1792, he drew up the declaration justifying the suspension of the king and the summoning of the National Convention. In the convention, he represented the département of Aisne. He drafted a new Constitution, representing the more moderate political wing, but it was rejected. At the trial of King Louis XVI, Condorcet voted against the death penalty and spoke out against it. His independent attitude became dangerous as the political winds shifted and Robespierre rose to power. Condorcet's political opponents issued a warrant for his arrest in 1793. While in hiding, he wrote the work for which is best-known today, Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain (Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Spirit). In 1794, Condorcet left his hiding place and attempted to flee. He was arrested and imprisoned, and then found dead in his cell. His Esquisse was published in 1795 by his wife. Nearly 200 years later, Condorcet was symbolically interred in the Panthéon in Paris.