Condorcet quickly showed his intellectual ability. His first public distinctions were gained in mathematics. When he was sixteen, his analytical abilities gained the praise of D'Alembert and Alexis Clairault, and soon Condorcet would study under D'Alembert.

From 1765 to 1774, he focused on science. In 1765, he published his first work on mathematics entitled Essai sur le calcul intégral, which was very well received, launching his career as a respected mathematician. He would go on to publish many more papers, and on February 25, 1769, he was elected to the Académie royale des Sciences (French Royal Academy of Sciences).

Jacques Turgot was Condorcet's mentor and longtime friendIn 1772, he published another paper on integral calculus which was widely hailed as a groundbreaking paper on many fronts. Soon after, he met Jacques Turgot, a French economist, and the two became fast friends. Turgot became an administrator under King Louis XV in 1772, and later became Controller General of Finance under Louis XVI in 1774.

Condorcet was recognized worldwide and worked with such famous scientists as Leonhard Euler and Benjamin Franklin. He soon became an honorary member of many foreign academies and philosophic societies notably in Germany, Russia and the United States.

Political career
In 1774, Condorcet was appointed Inspector General of the Mint by Turgot. From this point, Condorcet shifted his focus from the purely mathematical to philosophy and political matters. In the following years, he took up the defense of human rights in general, and of women's and coloured people's rights in particular. He supported the ideals embodied by the newly formed United States of America, and proposed projects of political, administrative and economic reforms intended to transform France.

In 1776, Turgot was dismissed as Controller General. Consequently, Condorcet submitted his resignation as Inspector General of the Mint, but the request was refused. He served in this post until 1791. Condorcet later wrote Vie de M. Turgot (1786), a biography which spoke fondly of Turgot and favoured Turgot's economic theories. Condorcet continued to receive prestigious appointments. In 1777, Condorcet was appointed Secretary of the Académie des Sciences. In 1782, he was appointed secretary of the French Academy.

Condorcet's paradox
In 1785, Condorcet wrote the Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions, one of his most important works. In this, he explores the "Condorcet's paradox", which describes the intransitivity of majority preference. Condorcet's paradox states that it is possible for a majority to prefer A over B, another majority to prefer B over C, and another majority to prefer C over A, all from the same electorate and same set of ballots. In this paper, he also outlines a generic Condorcet method, a method designed to simulate pairwise elections between all candidates in an election. He disagreed strongly with the alternative method of aggregating preferences put forth by Jean-Charles de Borda based on summed rankings of alternatives. Condorcet may have been the first to systematically apply mathematics in the social sciences.

In 1786, Condorcet worked on ideas for the differential and integral calculus, giving a new treatment of infinitesimals. This work was never printed. In 1789, he published Vie de Voltaire (1789), which agreed with Voltaire in his opposition to the Church. In 1798 Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population partly in response to Condorcet's views on the "perfectibility of society".

French Revolution
In 1789, the French Revolution swept France. Condorcet took a leading role, hoping for a rationalist reconstruction of society, and championed many liberal causes. As a result, in 1791 he was elected as the Paris representative in the Legislative Assembly, and then became the secretary of the Assembly. The Assembly adopted Condorcet's design for state education system, and Condorcet drafted a proposed Constitution for the new France. He advocated women's suffrage for the new government, writing an article for Journal de la Société de 1789, and by publishing "De l'admission des femmes au droit de cité" ("For the Admission to the Rights of Citizenship For Women") in 1790.

There were two competing views on which direction France should go, embodied by two political parties: the moderate Girondists, and the more radical Montagnards, led by Maximilien Robespierre who favored purging France of its royal past. Condorcet was quite independent but still counted many friends in the Girondist party. He presided the Legislative Assembly, as the Girondist held the majority, until it was replaced by the Convention, elected in order to design a new constitution and which abolished monarchy in favor of the republic.

At the time of King Louis XVI's trial, the Girondists had, however, lost their majority in the Convention. Condorcet, who opposed the death penalty but still supported this trial, spoke out against the execution of the King during the public vote at the Convention. He was then usually considered a Girondist. The Montagnards were becoming more and more influential in the Convention as the King's betrayal was confirming their theories. One of these, Hérault de Seychelles, a member, like Condorcet, of the Constitution's Commission, misrepresented many ideas from Condorcet's draft and presented what was called a Montagnard Constitution. Condorcet criticized the new work, and as a result, he was branded a traitor. On October 3, 1793, a warrant was issued for Condorcet's arrest.

Condorcet was interred in The Pantheon in 1989, where his remains now rest.The warrant for his arrest forced Condorcet into hiding. He hid for five months in the house of Mme. Vernet, Rue Servandoni, in Paris. It was there that he wrote Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain (English translation: Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind), which was published posthumously in 1795 and is considered one of the major texts of the Enlightenment and of historical thought. It narrates the history of civilization as one of progress in the sciences, shows the intimate connection between scientific progress and the development of human rights and justice, and outlines the features of a future rational society entirely shaped by scientific knowledge.

On March 25, 1794 Condorcet, convinced he was no longer safe, left his hideout and attempted to flee Paris. Two days later he was arrested in Clamart and imprisoned in the Borough-the Equality (Borough-the-Queen, French: Bourg-la-Reine). Two days after that, he was found dead in his cell. The most widely accepted theory is that his friend, Doctor Cabanis, gave him a poison which he eventually used. However, some historians believe that he may have been murdered (perhaps because he was too loved and respected to be executed). Edward O. Wilson proposed that Condorcet's death marked the end of the French Enlightenment.

Condorcet was interred in The Pantheon in 1989, in honor of the bicentennial of the French Revolution and Condorcet's role as a central figure in the Enlightenment. His grave can be found there today among other great French citizens.