ABSTRACT
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet was a French philosopher, mathematician, and statistician. With the growing political ferment in France, Condorcet became an outspoken advocate of the revolution and what he saw as its democratic ideals, even serving as an early participant in the post-revolutionary Paris Legislative Assembly. Condorcet’s progressive commitments are on display in the three works: On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship, Reflections on Negro Slavery, and Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind. In Admission, Condorcet argues that there is no credible case for denying women the rights of citizenship; custom or prejudice, and not reason, is at the root of such discrimination. In Reflections, Condorcet makes a case for the abolition of slavery. The Outlines, Condorcet’s most famous work, was composed while he was in hiding from the Jacobins.
