Condorcet's education: haunted by the ghost of Rousseau

The Marquis de Condorcet was a man of talent and vision. He was the youngest of the ‘philosophes’ who centred their activities on 18th‐century Paris. His age kept him clear of actual confrontation with the renegade philosopher of the era: Jean‐Jacques Rousseau. This situation would change, however, as the Jacobin party posthumously adopted Rousseau to be the ideologue of their bloody power‐lust. As educational spokesman for the Girondin party Condorcet proposed a wholesale restructuring of French schools and colleges. His initiatives could be labelled as progressive even in our own era, particularly with regard to his provisions for lifelong learning. However, Condorcet was thwarted by the spectre of Rousseau's paradoxical ideas; selected by the Jacobins more for their offensive value than for general enlightenment.