Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet

Born: 17 Sept 1743 in Ribemont, France
Died: 29 March 1794 in Bourg-la-Reine (near Paris), France

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Condorcet's most important work was on probability and the philosophy of mathematics. His most important treatise was Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions (1785). He also worked on differential equations.

Condorcet was d'Alembert's protegé but Lagrange complained to d'Alembert that Condorcet's work was badly expressed. Condorcet applied probability to support an argument to abolish capital punishment but, despite his support of the French Revolution, he became one of its victims.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. C Henry, Sur la vie et les écrits mathématique de Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat Marquis de Condorcet, Bollettino di bibliografia e storia della scienze mathematiche 16 (1883), 271- .
  4. G-G Granger, La Mathématique sociale du marquis de Condorcet (1956).
  5. L Cahen, Condorcet et la Révolution francaise (1904).
  6. K M Baker, Condorcet - form Natural Philosophy to Social Mathematics (Chicago, 1975).
  7. P Crepel, Condorcet, un mathematicien du social, La Recherche 207 (1989), 248-249.
  8. S F Lacroix, Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Condorcet (Paris, 1813). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996