Les particularites de la notion de progres chez Condorcet
Specific Nature of the Notion of Progress in the Oeuvre of Condorcet

Summary/Abstract: The way the idea of progress is defined in the works of the Enlighteners is one of the best indicators of the multi-layered character of their philosophy. Though frequently used by the Enlighteners, it is easily noticeable that it is not clearly defined in the very works that embody it. In his last work, entitled Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (l’Esquisse d’un tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain), written between 1789 and 1794, Condorcet proposes a bit specific determination of this notion: as advancement in terms of the whole of humankind, not just an individual. At the very beginning, the readers are warned not to find themselves surprised at ‘[…] why intellectual progress is not always accompanied by a society moving towards happiness and virtue.’ Through nine stages of development of human society, and the tenth one of providential character, provided in the aforementioned work, the author attempts at determining to what extent the interpretation of progress of this writer and mathematician could have influenced the contemporaries of the French Revolution and what the consequences of this interpretation are for the development of modern societies.

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