Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind

Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human MindPerhaps the last great work of the Enlightenment, this landmark in intellectual history is the Marquis de Condorcets homage to the human future emancipated from its chains and led by the progress of reason and the establishment of liberty. Writing in 1794, while in hiding, under sentence of death from the Jacobins in revolutionary France, Condorcet surveys human history and speculates upon its future. With William Godwin, he is the chief foil of

Perhaps the last great work of the Enlightenment, this landmark in intellectual history is the Marquis de CondorcetÕs homage to the human future Òemancipated from its chainsÓ and led by Òthe progress of reasonÓ and Òthe establishment of libertyÓ. Writing in 1794, while in hiding, under sentence of death from the Jacobins in revolutionary France, Condorcet surveys human history and speculates upon its future. With William Godwin, he is the chief foil of MalthusÕs Essay on Population. Portrayed by Malthus as an Òelate and giddy optimistÓ, Condorcet foresees a future of indefinite progress. Freed from ignorance and superstition, he argues that the human race stands on the threshold of epochal progress and limitless improvement. Condorcet defies modernist stereotypes of the right and the left. He is at once precursor of the free market and social democracy. This new edition of the original 1795 English translation, is the only English translation of a work of Condorcet currently in print.