Further Readings
Baker, D., ed. “Councils and Assemblies,” vol. VII of Studies in
Church History.Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University
Press, 1971.
Black, A. Monar chy and Community: Political Ideas in the Later
Conciliar Controversy, 1430–1450.Cambridge, Eng.: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1970.
———. Council and Commune: The Conciliar Movement and the
Council of Basle.London: Burns & Oates, 1979.
Cate, James Lea. Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor
of James Westfall Thompson,James Lea Cate and Eugene N.
Anderson, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
Condorcet, Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de
Caritat, marquis de (1743–1794) French phi-
losopher, mathematician, and political theorist
Once of the major figures of the FRENCH ENLIGHTEN-
MENT, Condorcet was born in Ribemont, Picardy. From
the age of 11, he was educated at the Jesuit College in
Reims and then at the College of Navarre in Paris,
where he studied mathematics and philosophy. Con-
dorcet devoted the next several years to serious mathe-
matical investigations, which resulted in his admission
to the Académie des Sciences in 1769. Condorcet’s
mathematical skills provided the foundation for his
later notions of social reform based on probability the-
ory. Condorcet argued that the social sciences can
approach the physical sciences in terms of their ability
to generate mathematical estimates of the probabilities
of human action within social institutions. He believed
that the calculus of probabilities was particularly rele-
vant when it came to understanding individual and
collective choices in democratic politics. One problem
he addressed, in his Essai sur l’application de l’analyse à
la probabilité des décisions rendues à la pluralité des voix
(Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of
Majority Decisions), is that of how individuals’ prefer-
ences can be aggregated into some determinate collec-
tive choice through the mechanism of majority rule in
a DEMOCRACY. Condorcet suggested that, if individuals
are motivated to vote according to their ideas of the
common good, it is almost certain that majority voting
will lead to collective results responsive to their indi-
vidual preferences.
Condorcet’s advocacy of a probabilistic framework
for social choice reveals his belief that the success of
moral and social progress depends on the elimination
of instinctive or habitual calculations of interest in
favor of rational deliberation and calculation. Con-
dorcet’s faith in the power of reason was, of course,
typical of ENLIGHTENMENTthinkers, and he expressed
his ideas for a rational social order on his election to
the Académie Française in 1782. Indeed, Condorcet’s
notions of the perfectability of human beings and the
possibility of rational social progress came to define
his intellectual and political activities for the remain-
der of his life.
Condorcet became deeply involved in the debates
and events surrounding the French Revolution of 1789.
That same year, he secured a seat as a member of the
municipal council of Paris and drafted his own version
of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Soon after, Con-
dorcet published essays that called for equal rights for
women, educational reform, and the abolition of torture
and SLAVERY. In 1791 he was elected to the Legislative
Assembly. However, Condorcet aligned himself politi-
cally with the moderate Girondin and against the radical
JACOBINwing at the National Convention called to estab-
lish the new French republic in 1792. Condorcet com-
posed the draft Girondin constitution of 1793, which
was grounded in parliamentarian principles and a lib-
eral commitment to NATURAL RIGHTSand universal suf-
frage. However, the convention instead adopted the
Jacobin version of the constitution. With the rise of the
Jacobin to power, Condorcet was forced to go into
hiding in Paris. While in hiding from July 1793 to
March 1794, Condorcet wrote his famous Esquisse d’un
tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain(Sketch
for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human
Mind), in which he formally presented his account of
the various stages of humanity’s progression and proba-
ble emancipation from domination. Condorcet also
described what he believed would be the three charac-
teristic features of the future historical epoch of human-
ity: (1) the destruction of inequality between nations;
(2) the destruction of inequality between classes; and
(3) the indefinite intellectual, moral, and physical per-
fectibility of human nature itself.
After leaving his asylum in Paris, Condorcet was ar-
rested on March 27, 1794 and died in prison two days
later.Further Reading
Goodell, E. The Noble Philosopher: Condorcet and the Enlighten-
ment.Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1994.congress
A DEMOCRATICrepresentative institution of a govern-
ment or organization (such as the Congress of thecongress 69http://www.ebook3000.com