Condorcet: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Language: English
Pages: 262
ISBN: 1107605393
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794), the innovating founder of mathematical thinking in politics, was the last great philosophe of the French Enlightenment and a central figure in the early years of the French Revolution. His political writings give a compelling vision of human progress across world history and express the hopes of that time in the future perfectibility of man. This volume contains a revised translation of 'The Sketch', written while in hiding from the Jacobin Terror, together with lesser-known writings on the emancipation of women, the abolition of slavery, the meanings of freedom and despotism and reflections on revolutionary violence. The introduction by Steven Lukes and Nadia Urbinati sets these works in context and shows why Condorcet is of real interest today as we reinterpret the meaning of Enlightenment, the very idea of progress and the founding ideas of social democracy.
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exclusion a case of the disqualification of labour as such. Reversing a consolidated republican tradition that was in his time shared by Immanuel Kant, Condorcet deemed the idea of making wage labour a reason for political exclusion a blatant contradiction, because modern society relied heavily upon individual responsibility and a market economy. ‘Women therefore fall into the same category as men who need to work for several hours a day. This may be a reason not to elect them but it cannot form
decisions should become the responsibility of those who by reason of their age or personal qualities inspired the greatest confidence. Such were the beginnings of political institutions. The formation of language must have preceded these institutions. The idea of expressing objects by conventional signs may seem above the reach of human intelligence at this stage of civilisation, but it is likely that such signs were introduced into common use as the work of time, by degrees, almost
of this form of prejudice and its influence on the fate of the human race must figure in the picture that I have undertaken; and nothing will serve better to show the extent to which happiness depends upon the progress of reason. Some nations remained scattered over the countryside; others were united in towns where there lived the nation’s chieftain, the tribal chieftains who shared his power and the elders of each family. There people stored their most valuable possessions in order to escape
mechanics were of no interest to them. If they studied pharmacy and surgery and particularly the treatment of wounds, they neglected anatomy. Their botanical knowledge and their knowledge of natural history was limited to substances that could be used as remedies, and certain plants and minerals whose singular properties could serve their ends. Their chemistry, which consisted of a few simple techniques without any theory, method or analysis, was used only for making certain solutions; and they
of servitude.3 We might imagine that if their physical strength or moral weakness has enabled them to survive this kind of treatment, they will not succumb under the weight of their chains; however, more perish in the course of the first year.4 This should come as no surprise if we consider that a slave’s only protection is the interest of the man whose property he has become. We cannot resolve this by establishing laws to fix the limits of the master’s power, for such laws can be upheld only by