A report on Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, An Essay on the Principle of Population and Marquis de Condorcet

Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain) is a work by the French philosopher and mathematician Marquis de Condorcet, written in 1794 while in hiding during the French Revolution and published posthumously in 1795.

The first edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) by Thomas Malthus was largely written as a response to the work of William Godwin and Condorcet's Sketch, as is evidenced by its full title: "An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of Society with remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers".

Malthus also constructed his case as a specific response to writings of William Godwin (1756–1836) and of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794).

In 1795, Condorcet's book Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind was published after his death by his wife Sophie de Grouchy.

Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) partly in response to Condorcet's views on the "perfectibility of society."

The Marquis de Condorcet had published his utopian vision of social progress and the perfectibility of man Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progres de l'Espirit Humain (Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind) in 1794.