Marquis de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (1743 to 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician and mathematician. Born at Ribemont, he studied at Reims and Paris and was praised early by d'Alembert, who became his teacher. His ideas, among them support for free markets, public education, constitutional government and equal rights for women and for 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 criticised the constitution proposed in 1793, the Convention ordered his arrest, and he died in prison in 1794 after a period in hiding from the revolutionary authorities.