The scientific revolution effected by Descartes begins a new period, which is now closed by the creation of the French Republic.
The idea of the progress of knowledge had created the idea of social Progress and remained its foundation.

It was therefore logical and inevitable that Condorcet should take advance in knowledge as the clew to the march of the human race.

The history of civilisation is the history of enlightenment.

Turgot had justified this axiom by formulating the cohesion of all modes of social activity.

Condorcet insists on "the indissoluble union" between intellectual progress and that of liberty, virtue, and the respect for natural rights, and on the effect of science in the destruction of prejudice.