Condorcet on the progress of human mind in the current pandemic era

Condorcet was a French philosopher during the French Revolution era. Among other things, his Wikipedia profile says the following on his thinking on the progress of the human mind:

“ .. the progress of the natural sciences must be followed by progress in the moral and political sciences ‘no less certain, no less secure from political revolutions’; that social evils are the result of ignorance and error rather than an inevitable consequence of human nature.”

To further elaborate on this point, Condorcet wrote in his essay titled ‘Sketch for a historical picture of the progress of human mind’, as translated by Keith Baker:

“ .. how welcome to the philosopher is this picture of the human race freed from all its chains, released from the domination of chance and of the enemies of its progress, advancing with a firm and sure step in the path of truth, virtue and happiness! How this spectacle consoles him for the errors, crimes and injustices that still defile the earth, of which he is often the victim! In contemplation of this picture, he finds the reward for his efforts on behalf of the progress of reason and the defense of liberty… This contemplation affords him an asylum where the memory of his persecutors cannot pursue him, where he forgets humanity tormented and corrupted by greed, fear or envy, to live in the mind with humanity restored to the rights and dignity of its nature. There he truly lives in communion with his fellows, in a paradise that his reason has been able to create and his love of humankind.”

As rational and wishfully uplifting is Condorcet’s writing on the progress of the human mind, one cannot help reflecting on it otherwise in the current situation. Is the asylum that Condorcet sketched in his writing, our own current abode safely isolated from ‘the errors, crimes and injustices that still defile the earth’?

Condorcet believed that progress in moral and political sciences must follow the progress in natural sciences. Unfortunately, it seems that the exactly reverse process is taking place now, in its causality and direction. Regress in moral and political sciences is now causing regress in the natural sciences.

It is further sobering to know the circumstances of the time when Condorcet wrote this essay. Condorcet was hiding from the rampant and chaotic political governance in the aftermath of French Revolution at the time. He was found and imprisoned soon after. His life ended there.

We stay safe in our own abode ‘in communion with our fellows’.