Throughout history, most human beings have valued tradition and resisted change. Reform of governments and religious institutions was deemed possible, but it typically did not mean going forward to institute something new but going back to recapture features of a lost golden age. Thinkers who studied the past and contemplated the future concluded that the human condition had always been more or less the same, or that history ran in cycles, or that it was the story of gradual decline from a mythological state of perfection. Only in the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did intellectuals and much of the general populace come to believe that the past was a burden and that human beings could bring about changes in their condition that were beneficial, not destructive. In a word, people began to believe in progress.The West’s belief in progress can be traced back to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, when many thinkers became convinced that well-intentioned human beings could employ reason to erase at least some of the cruelties, superstitions, and prejudices that had diminished the human condition in the past. By the end of the eighteenth century some went further and developed a theory of progress that saw humanity ascending from ignorance and darkness to a utopian future. The most famous prophet of progress was the Marquis de Condorcet, a mathematician, philosopher, and education reformer. He supported the French Revolution but, like many moderates, fell afoul of the radical Jacobins and was forced to go into hiding in July 1793. It was then he wrote his Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind, which traces human progress in ten stages from the dawn of history to the French Revolution and beyond. Having completed his work in March 1794, he emerged from hiding, was arrested immediately, and was found dead the next morning of unknown causes.
The excerpts from Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind that I would like you to read (you can by clicking here here) come from “The Ninth Epoch,” in which he discusses developments from the mid-seventeenth century to the beginning of the French Revolution, and “The Tenth Epoch,” in which he describes the future.
After you have read those excerpts, I would like you all to think about and discuss the following: What factors, according to Condorcet, have impeded progress in the past? According to Condorcet, scientific achievement was the outstanding feature of humanity’s “ninth stage.” In what ways did science in this era change human thinking and affect human society? Condorcet is not proud of the Europeans’ record in dealing with the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. What groups does he blame for the Europeans’ unenlightened behavior in these regions? Why is Condorcet confident that Europeans will modify their behavior in Asia and Africa? What will be the result? Does Condorcet show any interest in preserving the customs and beliefs of the Asians and Africans? What in Condorcet’s view caused the oppression of women in the past? Why does he reject such oppression, and what positive results in his view will result from ending it? What role will technology play in humanity’s tenth stage? Your thoughts…
3 comments:
According to Condorcet, monarchs who rule for themselves, acceptance without the use of reason or questioning, inequality among people because of superiority being deemed by birth and skin color have impeded on human progress. Science brought more than echnological innovations and understanding. The scientific way of thinking seeped into other and most other parts of society. Humans began to question and not accept "innate" knowledge.
Condorcet blames greedy officials and missionaries for the situations in Africa and Asia. Yet he is confident that these "thiefs" will ultimately be the vehicles of Enlightenment ideas, resulting in future equality. He states that the oppression of women is because of an "abuse of force". This will lead to true equality and true progress in education. Condorcet explains that the industrial revoolution will lead to a more durable product with less labor.
While a lot of Condorcet's prediction came true (sort of), they are not yet fully realized. Is the abolishment of inequality and ignorance possible? According to Condorcet, yes. He hints at a future where the time between birth and death is not definite and death is caused more by accident than other causes. In a way this has come true. Yet, Condorcet over-romanticized industrialization, when in reality it was very harmful and brought about a new wave of inequality which undermined Enlightenment thinking. Condorcet was also misleading in his prediction that industry would lead to a decrease in environmental damage when more durable products would result in a decrease of environmental destruction.
As explained by Condorcet, the restrictions of the government and the inequality of people has stumped the growth of the economy. With restrictions, people are limited by what they can do. Their full potential isn't met because of it. Inequality limits those who are unequal in the fact that they can't advance in wealth since they receive no respect. Also the more people able to purchase, the more customers, the more business. He says that women are essential in the economy and without them there wouldnt be one. also he talks about the advancement in technology which is more income with less work. This has led to a more lazier economy as well that has increases in income like never before.
As Prill has mentioned in class already, when there is a time of crisis or something isn't going right, people immediately start looking for change and think that doing something completely different and having a total opposite approach will reverse that. Condorcet, in this document, said that the government and it's limitations and restrictions along with the inequality amongst people is what caused an economic crisis. The Enlightenment thinkers became more and more common when money was on the line. People began to think in different ways to resolve the government and inequality issue they had to get this burden to disappear. The inequality issue was the favored problem of the two to resolve, so people worked to give women and other races, slaves, etc. rights and get more involved to boost the economy.
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