Their starting-point was that which is, not that which ought to be.

And, apart from their narrower point of view, they differed from the philosophers in two very important points.

They did not believe that society was of human institution, and therefore they did not believe that there could be any deductive science of society based simply on man's nature.
Moreover, they held that inequality of condition was one of its immutable features, immutable because it is a consequence of the inequality of physical powers.
But they believed in the future progress of society towards a state of happiness through the increase of opulence which would itself depend on the growth of justice and "liberty"; and they insisted on the importance of the increase and diffusion of knowledge.

Their influence in promoting a belief in Progress is vouched for by Condorcet, the friend and biographer of Turgot.

As Turgot stands apart from the Physiocrats (with whom indeed he did not identify himself) by his wider views on civilisation, it might be suspected that it is of him that Condorcet was chiefly thinking.