Marquis de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (September 17, 1743 - March 28, 1794) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method. Ahead of his time in many respects as an 18th century thinker, he advocated a liberal economy, free and equal public education, constitutional justice, and equal rights for women and people of all races. His ideas and writings embodied the ideals of the Enlightenment and rationalism, and remain influential to this day.

Condorcet's paradox

In 1785, Condorcet wrote the Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions,

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one of his most important works. In this, he explores the "Condorcet's paradox", which describes the intransitivity of majority preference. Condorcet's paradox states that it is possible for a majority to prefer A over B, another majority to prefer B over C, and another majority to prefer C over A, all from the same

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electorate and same set of ballots. In this paper, he also outlines a generic Condorcet method, a method designed to simulate pairwise elections between all candidates in an election. He disagreed strongly with the alternative method of aggregating preferences put forth by Jean-Charles de Borda based on summed rankings of alternatives. Condorcet may have been the first to systematically apply mathematics in the social sciences.

Related Topics:
Jean-Charles de Borda - Mathematics - Social sciences

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In 1786, Condorcet worked on ideas for the differential and integral calculus, giving a new treatment of infinitesimals. This work was never printed. In 1789, he published Vie de Voltaire (1789), which agreed with Voltaire in his opposition to the Church.

Related Topics:
1786 - 1789 - Voltaire - Church

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