Marquis de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet, known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician and mathematician, born in 1743 and dying in 1794. His ideas, including support for free markets, public education, constitutional government and equal rights for women and people of all races, have been said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he has been called the last witness. He was elected to the Académie royale des Sciences in 1769, became an honorary member of many foreign academies, and was appointed inspector general of the Paris mint in 1774. As a critic of the constitution proposed by Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles in 1793, he was voted arrested by the Convention Nationale, and he died in prison after a period of hiding.