Condorcet Quotes

“I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism.Diderot,D'Alembert,D’Holbach,Condorcet,are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

[Letter to Thomas Law, 13 June 1814]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“The agenda-setting influence of political parties, which is often considered as a dysfunctional if not outright immoral part of public policy-making, may in fact be vital to overcome Condorcet's paradox as a central theoretical limitation of democracy. By endorsing certain candidates or policies while strategically sweeping others under the rug, political parties indirectly help to reduce the likelihood of situations in which the general public's electoral choices would endlessly 'cycle' and thus lead to irrational policy outcomes. When viewed from a purely epistemic perspective of collective decision making political vices can in principle be cognitively virtuous.”
― Georg Theiner

“Although Condorcet emphasized the free, inherently rational individual, he was at the same time concerned with the way in which each person was formed by external authorities. Revealing a tension in his thought between democratic liberalism and intellectual elitism, he implied that those who controlled the educational system and shaped public opinion possessed the real power in the state. This concept would later be taken up by Comte in his formulation of the spiritual power, which would exhibit a similar tension.
More dynamic than Montesquieu's view of development, Condorcet's picture of history affirmed the possibility as well as the desirability of change. He believed progress could be accelerated by the philosophers, who had a unique ability to propagate truth. Just as they had been crucial in instigating the French revolution, so too they would be in the vanguard of the inevitable revolution that was to embrace all of humanity once the moral and political sciences were established. Comte could hardly have failed to be profoundly struck by Condorcet's description of the role of the philosopher and his assertion that 'everything tells us that we are approaching the epoch of one of the greatest revolutions of the human species.”
― Mary Pickering, Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume I

“Condorcet's elitist inclinations are evident in his theory that to prevent wasting time and effort, it was necessary to unite scientists under a common direction. This plan seems to make the scientists a very powerful authority fee of all controls. Frank Manuel states that Condorcet's plan was particularly evident in the 1804 edition of the Esquisse. Appended to this edition were extra sections on the scientific organization of society as well as Condorcet's commentary on Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, which concentrated on the need for scientific authority. Manuel asserts that Comte was deeply influenced by this edition. But Comte's library contains the 1797 edition, which was more concerned with the freedom of the individual than with scientific power.”
― Mary Pickering, Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume I