An Essay on the Principle of Population

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The book Essay on the Population Principle was first published anonymously in 1798, but the author was immediately identified as Thomas Robert Malthus. The book predicts a bleak future, as the population will increase geometrically, doubling every 25 years, but food production will only grow arithmetically, which will produce hunger and starvation, unless controlled births.

Although not the first book on population, it was revised for over 28 years and has been recognized as the most influential work of its time. Malthus's book sparked a debate about population size in the Kingdom of Great Britain and contributed to the passage of the Census 1800 Act. This law allows the holding of a national census in England, Wales and Scotland, beginning in 1801 and continuing every ten years until now. The 6th edition of the book (1826) is independently cited as a key influence by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in developing the theory of natural selection.

The key part of this book is dedicated to what is now known as Malthus' Iron Law of Population . The name itself is retrospectively, based on the iron wage law, which is a reformulation of Malthusian position by Ferdinand Lassalle, who in turn gets the name of Goethe's "eternal iron law" in Das GÃÆ'¶ttliche. This theory suggests that population growth will contribute to an increase in labor supply that will undoubtedly lower wages. In essence, Malthus is concerned that continued population growth will lead to poverty and hunger.

In 1803, Malthus published, with the same title, the second edition that greatly revised his work. His final version, the 6th edition, was published in 1826. In 1830, 32 years after the first edition, Malthus published a brief version titled Summary View on the Population Principle , which included a response to criticism. of the larger work.

Video An Essay on the Principle of Population

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Between 1798 and 1826 Malthus published six editions of his famous treatise, updating each edition to include new material, to overcome criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspective on the issue. He wrote the original text in reaction to the optimism of his father and his fellow companions (especially Rousseau) about future society improvements. Malthus also built his case in response to William Godwin's writings (1756-1836) and Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794).

Malthus considers the ideals of future improvement in many humanities with skepticism, given that throughout the history of the segments of every human population appear to be degraded into poverty. He explains this phenomenon by stating that population growth generally develops in time and in many areas until the size of the population relative to the primary resource causes distress:

"But in all societies, even those who are the most virulent, the tendency for virtuous attachment [ie, marriage] is so strong, that there is constant effort towards increasing population." This constant effort is as incessantly subject to lower class society for distress and prevent any permanent repair from their condition ".

The way in which these effects are produced seems like this. We would consider subsistence means in any country to be just as easy to support the inhabitants. Constant effort on population... increases the number of people before the means of subsistence increase. Therefore food previously backed by seven million should now be divided between seven million and half or eight million. The poor consequently have to live much worse, and many of them become very miserable. The number of laborers is also above the proportion of jobs in the market, the price of labor should tend to decrease, while the price of provisions at the same time tend to rise. Therefore the worker must work harder to get the same as he did before. During this tribulation season, disputes to marriage, and the difficulty of raising a family are so great that the population stands. In the mean time of cheap labor, many workers, and the need for industrial upgrading among them, encourage farmers to hire more labor in their land, to live fresh land, and to manure and improve more fully what is already in preparation until finally the means of subsistence become in proportion to the same population as in the period from which we depart. The labor situation becomes comfortable again, the restraints on the population are slightly relaxed, and the same retrograde and progressive movement with regards to happiness is repeated.

Malthus also sees that people through history have experienced at one time or another epidemic, famine, or war: an event that masks the underlying problem of a population that goes beyond their limits:

The power of the inhabitants is higher than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that early death must be in some form or the visit of other human beings. The ugliness of mankind is active and capable of depopulation. They are precursors in the great destructive army, and often accomplish the terrible work themselves. But if they fail in this war of annihilation, the sick season, epidemic, plague, and plague go ahead in a great arrangement, and wipe out thousands and tens of thousands of them. If success is incomplete, the inevitable giant hungry stalk is behind, and with one powerful blow, the population level with the world's food.

The rapid increase in the global population of last century shows the predicted population patterns of Malthus; he also appears to describe the social dynamics of demographic complex pre-industrial societies. These findings are the basis for the modern mathematical model of neo-malthusian long-term historical dynamics .

Malthus makes special predictions that the world's population will fall below the line that leads upwards of the current population of one billion, adding a billion every 25 years. He writes:

If the human subsistence given by the earth must be increased every twenty-five years at an amount equal to that produced by the world today, this would allow the forces of production on earth to be completely unlimited, and the ratio rises far more than can be we imagine that any human exertion that might make it possible... but still the power of the population that becomes the power of the superior order, the enhancement of the human species can only be maintained in proportion to the increase in subsistence means by the constant operation of the powerful law of the necessity of acting as the examination of greater strength.

Until now, the world population is still below the prediction line. However, the current rate of increase since 1955 is more than two billion per 25 years, more than twice the maximum predicted rate of Malthus. At the same time, world hunger is declining. The highest UN projection has a population that continues at this level and exceeds the predicted line of Malthus. This high projection assumes the current sustainable growth rate in 2100 and beyond.

Proposed solution

Malthus argues that two types of checks hold the population within the limits of resources: positive checks, which increases the mortality rate; and the preventive , which decreases the birth rate. Positive checks include hunger, disease and war; preventive testing, abortion, birth control, prostitution, marriage delays, and celibacy. Regarding the possibility of freeing humans from these limits, Malthus opposes various imaginable solutions. For example, he satirically criticized the idea that agricultural improvement could develop indefinitely:

"If the progress is truly unlimited, it may increase infinitum, but it is so disgusting that we may believe that among plants and between animals there is a limit to improvement, even if we do not know exactly. If possible, choosing a gift of flowers often wearing a stronger outfit without success, at the same time, would be very arrogant if anyone said that he had seen the best carnation or anemone he could, but he might assert without the smallest possibility to be contradicted by fact in the future, that no carnations or anemones can be developed with the size of a large cabbage, but there is an amount that can be set much larger than cabbage. No one can say that he has seen the largest wheat ears, or the largest oak tree ever could grows, but he may easily, and with perfect certainty, specify the great point, in m they will not arrive. all therefore, a careful distinction must be made, between unlimited progress, and progress where the boundaries are simply undefined. "

He also commented on the idea that Francis Galton later called eugenics:

"It does not... by any means seem impossible that with attention to breeding, a certain level of improvement, similar to that among animals, may occur among humans.Whether intelligence can be communicated may be a matter of doubt, but the size, strength, beauty , skin, and perhaps longevity at a transmitable level... Since the human race, however, can not be improved in this way without condemning all the bad specimens for celibacy, it is unlikely that attention to breeding should be common.

In the second and subsequent editions, Malthus emphasizes more on moral control. By that he meant a delay in marriage until people could support the family, coupled with strict celibacy (abstinence) until then. "He went so far as to claim that widespread moral control is the best way - indeed, the only way - to reduce bottom-class poverty." These plans appear consistent with virtues, economic benefits, and social improvements.

Malthus emphasized the difference between government-backed welfare, and public charity. He proposed the gradual elimination of bad legislation by gradually reducing the number of people eligible for help. Relief in severe distress will come from personal charity. He reasoned that poor aid acted against the long-term interests of the poor by raising commodity prices and undermining the independence and resilience of farmers. In other words, poor laws tend to "create the poor they care for."

It alludes to Malthus that critics claim he does not have a caring attitude towards the situation of the poor. In the 1798 edition his concern for the poor was shown in the following passages:

Nothing is so common to hear the impetus that must be given to the population. If the tendency of humanity to increase to become so great as I have represented, it may seem strange that this increase does not occur when it is repeatedly called for. The real reason is, that demand for a larger population is done without preparing the necessary funds to support it. Increase the demand for agricultural labor by encouraging cultivation, thereby improving crop yields, and improving labor conditions, and no concerns should be entertained from a proportional increase in population. An attempt to influence this goal in other ways is malignant, cruel, and tyrannical, and in a state of tolerable freedom can not succeed.

In addition to the 1817 edition he wrote:

I have written one chapter clearly about the practical direction of our charity; and in separate parts elsewhere have paid only tribute to the noble virtue of virtue. For those who have read these parts of my work, and have paid attention to the general tone and the spirit of the whole, I am happy to appeal, if they are but honestly, against these allegations... the intimate that I will deprive charitable deeds and virtue regardless of the merits they give to our natural moral dignity...

Some, such as William Farr and Karl Marx, argue that Malthus did not fully recognize the human capacity to increase food supplies. However, in this regard, Malthus writes: "The main uniqueness that distinguishes man from other animals, in the means of his support, is his strength greatly enhances this means."

About religion

As a Christian and a priest, Malthus answers the question of how an almighty and caring God can let suffering. In its First Edition of the Essay (1798) Malthus argues that the threat of poverty and hunger constantly plays a role to teach the virtues of hard work and virtuous behavior. "If population and food increase in the same ratio, it is possible that humans may never arise from barbaric circumstances," he wrote, adding further, "Crime is in the world not to create despair but activity."

Nevertheless, although the threat of poverty can be understood as an incentive to motivate the human industry, it is not God's will that humans should suffer. Malthus writes that it is humans themselves who are to blame for human suffering:

"I believe that it is the Creator's intention that the earth should be replenished, but of course with a healthy, virtuous and happy population, not unhealthy, vicious and miserable, and if, in an attempt to obey the command to increase and multiply , we these people only with beings from this last description and suffer for it, we have no right to condemn the justice of command, but our irrational way to execute it. "

Demographics, wages and inflation

Malthus writes about the relationship between population, real wage, and inflation. As the labor population grows faster than food production, real wages fall as population growth causes the cost of living (ie, food costs) to rise. The difficulty of raising the family ultimately reduces the rate of population growth, until the fallen population leads to higher real wages:

"A situation which, perhaps, more than anything else, contributes to concealing this oscillation from a common view, is the difference between nominal and real work prices.It is rare that the nominal price of labor universally falls, but we also know that it often remains while the nominal price of the provisions has been increasing gradually.This, indeed, will generally be the case, if the increase in manufacturing and trade is enough to hire new workers thrown into the market, and to prevent an increase in supply from lowered money prices, but an increase in the number of workers who receive the same money-wage, of course, by their competition, increase the price-money from corn.This is, in fact, a marked decline in the price of labor, and, during this period, the lower class conditions of society should gradually get worse, but the peasants and capitalists grew rich from the real cheap wages, folding will the capital allow them to employ more men; and, as the population may have undergone some examination of the greater difficulty in supporting the family, labor demand, after a certain period, will be large in proportion to supply, and the price will certainly rise, if left to discover its natural rate; and thus the wage of labor, and consequently the condition of the lower classes of society, may have a progressive and retreat movement, although labor prices may never fall nominally.

In his later essay edition, Malthus clarified his view that if society depended on human misery to limit population growth, then the sources of suffering (eg, famine, disease, and war, termed Malthus "positive checks on the population") would surely befall. society, because it will fluctuate the economic cycle. On the other hand, "preventive checks" on birth-limiting populations, such as later marriages, can ensure a higher standard of living for all, while also improving economic stability.

Issues and versions

• 1798: Essay on the Principles of Population, as this affects the future improvement of society with the speculation of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other authors. . Published anonymously.
• 1803: Second edition and much larger: Essay on the Principles of Population; or, the views of past and present effects on human happiness; with an investigation into our prospects respecting future deletions or future mitigation of crime occurring . Authors recognized.
• 1806, 1807, 1817, and 1826: 3-6 editions, with relatively minor changes from the second edition.
• 1823: Malthus contributed an article on Population to the EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica supplement.
• 1830: Malthus has a long extract from a 1823 article reprinted as a Summary view of the Population Principle .

Maps An Essay on the Principle of Population

first edition

The full title of the first edition of Malthus's essay is "An Essay on the Principles of Population, because it affects the Improvement of the Future Society by commenting on Speculation of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Authors." Speculation and other authors described below.

William Godwin has published his utopian work Research on Political Justice in 1793, with subsequent editions of 1796 and 1798. Also, (1797). Malthus's statement about Godwin's work covers chapters 10 to 15 (inclusive) of nineteen. Godwin answers with Of Population (1820).

Marquis de Condorcet has published his utopian vision of the social progress and human perfection of Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progres de l'Espirit Humain (Progress of the Future of Human Thoughts) in 1794. Malthus' Thanksgiving Condorcet work covers chapters 8 and 9.

The essay of Malthus is a response to this utopian vision, as he argues:

The natural inequalities of the two forces, the population, and the production of the earth, and our great natural law that must perpetuate its effects remain the same, forming seemingly insurmountable difficulties in the way to the perfection of society..

"Other writers" include Robert Wallace, Adam Smith, Richard Price, and David Hume.

Malthus himself claims:

The only authors of his writings to which I have summarized the principle, which forms the main argument of the Essays, are Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Dr. Price...

Chapters 1 and 2 describe the Malthus Principles of Population, and the nature of the food supply is not equivalent to population growth. The exponential nature of population growth is now known as Malthus's growth model. This Malthus Aspects of Population Principle, together with his assertion that food supply is subject to a linear growth model, will remain unchanged in the upcoming editions of his essay. Note that Malthus really uses geometric and arithmetic, respectively.

Chapter 3 discusses the overthrow of the Roman empire by barbarians, due to population pressure. War as a population check is checked.

Chapter 4 examines the current state of the population of civilized countries (especially Europe). Malthus criticized David Hume for "possible errors" in "the criteria he proposed as assisting in population estimates."

Chapter 5 addresses the Younger Pitt's Lack of Law.

Chapter 6 examines the rapid growth of new colonies such as the Third Colony of the United States.

Chapter 7 examines checks on populations such as plague and famine.

Chapter 8 also examined Wallace's "probability of error" that the difficulties arising from the population were at great distances. "

Chapters 16 and 17 examine the causes of state wealth, including criticisms of Adam Smith and Richard Price. English wealth is compared to Chinese poverty.

Chapters 18 and 19 set the theodicy to explain the problem of evil in terms of natural theology. It views the world as a "great process for generating matter" in which the Supreme "acts" according to common law "creates" body desires "as" necessary to create mobilization "that constitutes" the faculty of reasoning. " In this way, the population principle will "tend to promote, rather than hinder the general purpose of Providence."

The first edition influenced natural theological writers such as William Paley and Thomas Chalmers.

2nd to 6th edition

After extensive praise and criticism of his essay, Malthus revised his argument and acknowledged another influence:

In the course of this investigation I discovered that more was done than I knew, when I first published the Essay. The poverty and misery that arise from the overpopulation of the population has been clearly seen, and the harshest solution proposed, has long been the time of Plato and Aristotle. And in recent years, subjects have been treated in such a way by some French Economists; sometimes by Montesquieu, and, among our own authors, by Dr. Franklin, Sir James Stewart, Mr. Arthur Young, and Mr. Townsend, to create a natural shock that no longer attracts public attention.

The second edition, published in 1803 (with Malthus now clearly identified as the author), entitled " Essay on the Principles of Population; or, Displaying Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness, with our Prospect investigations honoring the Elimination of Period Critical Home or Crime Mitigation . "

Malthus suggested that the second edition "be considered a new work", and the next edition are all minor revisions of the second edition. It was published in 1806, 1807, 1817, and 1826.

By far the biggest change is how the 2nd to 6th edition of the essay was compiled, and the most detailed and detailed evidence that Malthus presented, more than his previous book on the population. Basically, for the first time, Malthus examined his own Population Principles by region based on the world's population. The essay is organized into four books:

• Book I - From Checks for Populations in the Less-Contemporary and Less-Backed Sections of the World.
• Book II - From Check For Population in Various Modern European Countries.
• Book III - Of the various Systems or Lessons that have been proposed or are applicable in the Society, as They affect crimes arising from the Principles of Population.
• Book IV - Our future prospects that respect the Elimination or Crime Mitigation arising from the Population Principles.

As part of Malthus's highly influential work (see Thomas Malthus's main article), this approach is considered to be crucial in building the demographic field.

The following controversial quote appears in the second edition:

A man born in an already-owned world, if he can not earn a living from his demanding parent, and if society does not want his job, has no right claim to the smallest part of the food, and, in fact, has no business where he is. At a great party of nature there is no empty cover for him. He tells him to leave, and will soon carry out his own orders, if he does not work at the mercy of some of his guests. If these guests wake up and make room for him, other intruders immediately appear to demand the same help. The report of the provisions for all who came, filled the hall with many prosecutors. The order and harmony of the party are disrupted, many of which prior to the rule turn into scarcity; and the happiness of the guests is destroyed by the spectacle of misery and dependence in every part of the hall, and by the excited lure of them, who are genuinely angry for not finding the provisions that have been taught them to hope for. Guests learn too late their mistake, in the face of strict orders for all the intruders, issued by the party's big mistress, who, wishing that all guests must have plenty, and know that he can not give an unlimited amount, humanly refused to recognize new arrivals when his desk is full.

Ecologist Professor Garrett Hardin claims that the previous section inspired a hostile reaction from many critics. The offending part of the Malthusian essay appears in the 2nd edition only, as Malthus feels the obligation to remove it.

From edition 2 onwards - in Book IV - Malthus advocates moral control in addition, and voluntarily, checks the population. These include steps such as sexual abstinence and late marriage.

As noted by Professor Robert M. Young, Malthus dropped his chapters on natural theology from the 2nd edition onwards. Also, the essay becomes less responsive to Godwin and Condorcet.

Summary View

A Summary of the Population Principle was published in 1830. The author is identified as Pdt. T.R. Malthus, A.M., F.R.S. Malthus writes Summary Views for those who do not have the free time to read the complete essay and, as he says, "to correct some misstatement that has gone overseas by honoring two or three of the most points Essential of Essays ".

The Summary View ends with the Respect of the People Principle on the accusation that it "surpasses the good of the Gods, and is inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the scriptures".

See Thomas Malthus's main article for more.

This is Malthus's last word on Principle of Population . He died in 1834.

Other works affecting Malthus

• Observation on the Increase of Mankind, Peopling Country, etc. (1751) by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
• From Populousness of Ancient Nations (1752) - David Hume (1711-76)
• Dissertation on the Number of Mankind in the Old and Modern Age (1753), Country Characteristics Present Great Britain (1758), and Various Human Prospects, Rescue (1761) - Robert Wallace (1697-1771)
• Demand for Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations (1776) - Adam Smith (1723-90)
• Essays on the Population of the Kingdom from the Revolution to the Time Now (1780), Evidence for the Future Periods in the Human State, with Means and Tasks Promoting It (1787) - Richard Price (1723-1791).

Reception and influence Essays

Personnel

Malthus was subjected to extreme personal criticism. People who do not know anything about his personal life criticize him for not having children and having too many children. In 1819, Shelley, berating Malthus as a priest, called him "a eunuch and a tyrant". Marx repeated the idea, adding that Malthus had taken a vow of celibacy, calling him "superficial", "a professional plagiarist", "landed aristocracy agent", "paid advocate" and "the main enemy of the people".

In the 20th century, Malthus editors of Everyman claimed that Malthus had practiced population control by repatriating eleven girls. In fact, Malthus became the father of two daughters and one son. Garrett Hardin gives an overview of the personal comment.

Initial effect

The position held by Malthus as professor at the Haileybury training college, until his death in 1834, gave his theory some influence over the British administration in India. According to Peterson, William Pitt the Younger (in the office: 1783-1801 and 1804-1806), while reading Malthus's work, recalled the Bill he introduced which called for the extension of the Poor Help. Concerns about Malthus's theory helped promote the idea of ​​a national population census in Britain. Government official John Rickman became instrumental in carrying out the first modern British census in 1801, under the rule of Pitt. In the 1830s, Malthus's writings greatly influenced Whig's reforms that reversed Tory's paternalism and brought the Poor Act of Amendment Act of 1834.

Malthus assured most economists that although high fertility can increase gross output, he tends to reduce output per capita . David Ricardo and Alfred Marshall admire Malthus, and so be under his influence. The early converts to population theory include William Paley. Despite Malthus' opposition to contraception, his work had a powerful influence on Francis Place (1771-1854), whose neo-Malthus movement became the first to advocate contraception. The premises were published in Illustration and Proof of Population Principle in 1822.

Initial response in Malthus controversy

William Godwin criticized Malthus's critique of his own argument in his book On Population (1820). Other theoretical and political criticisms of Malthus and Malthusian thought emerged shortly after the publication of the First Essay on Population, especially in Robert Owen's work, from William Hazlitt's essay (1807) and Nassau William Senior's economist, and William Cobbett's moralist. True Law of Population (1845) is by politician Thomas Doubleday, a Cobbettian.

John Stuart Mill strongly defended Malthus's ideas in his work in 1848, Principles of Political Economy (Book II, Chapters 11-13). The Mill assumes Malthus's critiques made so far shallow.

American economist Henry Charles Carey rejected Malthus' argument in his book of magnum opuses 1858-59, The Principles of Social Science. Carey argues that the only situation in which subsistence means will determine population growth is one where a given society does not introduce new technology or does not adopt a forward-thinking government policy, and that population is governed in every well-regulated society, but its emphasis on subsistence marks lower stages of civilization.

Marxist opposition

Another strand of the opposition to Malthusian ideas began in the mid-19th century with the writings of Friedrich Engels (Critique of Political Economic Critics, 1844) and Karl Marx ( Capital , 1867). Engels and Marx argue that what Malthus sees as a matter of population pressure on the means of production actually represents the pressure of the means of production on the population. Thus they see it in terms of the concept of a labor reserve army. In other words, it seems that the population that exceeds that of Malthus is associated with the seemingly innate disposition of the poor to reproduce beyond their capabilities actually emerges as the product of a highly dynamic capitalist economy.

Engels refers to Malthus's hypothesis as "the harshest and most barbaric theory ever, a system of despair that afflicts all the beautiful expressions of your neighbor's love and the nationality of the world." Engels also predicted that science would solve the problem of adequate food supplies.

In the Marxist tradition, Lenin sharply criticized Malthus's theory and his neo-Malthusian version, calling it the "reactionary doctrine" and "the efforts of bourgeois ideologues to liberate capitalism and to prove the inevitability of privacy and misery for the working class." under any social system ".

Moreover, many Russian philosophers could not easily apply Malthus population theory to Russian society in the 1840s. In Britain, where Malthus lived, the population increased rapidly but suitable agricultural land was limited. Russia, on the other hand, has vast land with agricultural potential but a relatively sparse population. It is possible that this distinction between Russian and British realities contributes to the rejection of Malthus' Essay on the Principles of Population by the major Russian thinkers. Another difference that contributes to the confusion and ultimately the rejection of Malthus' argument in Russia is his cultural base in British capitalism. This political contrast helps explain why Russia needed twenty years to publish a review of work and fifty years to translate the Essay of Malthus.

Response later

In the 20th century, those who consider Malthus as a failed failure prophet include an editor of Nature , John Maddox.

Economist Julian Lincoln Simon criticized Malthus' conclusion. He notes that despite the predictions of Malthus and Neo-Malthus, the massive geometric population growth in the 20th century did not result in the Malthus disaster. Many factors have been identified that have contributed: general improvements in agricultural methods (industrial farming), work mechanization (tractors), introduction of improved varieties of wheat and other crops (Green Revolution), the use of pesticides to control pest plants. Each plays a role.

The Enviro-skeptic BjÃÆ'¸rn Lomborg presented data to debate the case that the environment has really improved, and that the calorie per day produced per capita globally rose 23% between 1960 and 2000, despite the doubling of world population at that period.

From an opposite angle, Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, an ancestor in economics and founder of the eco-economic paradigm, argues that Malthus was too optimistic, for he failed to recognize the upper limit of population growth alone, the geometric increase in the number of humans sometimes slowed (examined) by an increase in arithmetic in agricultural products, according to Malthus's simple growth model; but some upper boundaries of the population must exist, as the total amount of agricultural land - actual and potential - on Earth is limited, Georgescu-Roegen said. Further Georgescu-Roegen argues that the increase in agricultural productivity of the industrialized world since Malthus' has been brought about by mechanization has replaced a rarer source of input for more abundant solar radiation inputs: Machines, chemical fertilizers and pesticides all rely on mineral resources for their operations , the rendering of modern agriculture - and its associated food processing and distribution systems - is almost as dependent on Earth's mineral stock as does the industrial sector. Georgescu-Roegen warned that this situation is the main reason why the carrying capacity of the Earth - that is, the capacity of the Earth to sustain human populations and consumption levels - will inevitably decrease in the future because of the limited supply of Earth's mineral resources today. extracted and utilized. Political adviser Jeremy Rifkin and ecological economist Herman Daly, two students from Georgescu-Roegen, have expressed the same neo-Malthus concerns about the long-term weakness of modern mechanical agriculture.

Anthropologist Eric Ross describes Malthus's work as a rationalization of social injustice generated by the Industrial Revolution, the anti-immigration movement, the eugenics movement and various international development movements.

Social theory

Though using the term "Malthus's plagues" by critics such as economist Julian Simon (1932-1998), Malthus himself does not write that mankind faces an inevitable future disaster. Instead, it offers an evolutionary social theory of population dynamics because it has acted steadily throughout its previous history. The eight main points regarding population dynamics appear in 1798 Essays :

1. subsistence severely limits the population level
2. when the means of subsistence increase, the population increases
3. population pressure stimulates productivity increases
4. increased productivity stimulates further population growth
5. as productivity increases can not sustain the potential population growth rate, the population needs strong checks to maintain parity with carrying capacity
6. individual cost/benefit decisions related to sex, work, and children determine the expansion or contraction of population and production
The
7. check will start operation because the population exceeds the subsistence level
8. the nature of this examination will have a significant effect on the larger sociocultural system - Malthus points specific to misery, ugliness, and poverty

Malthus's social theory was influenced by Herbert Spencer's idea of ​​the most suitable survival, and modern ecological-evolutionary theory of Gerhard Lenski and Marvin Harris. Malthus's ideas have contributed to the canon of socio-economic theory.

The first UNESCO director-general, Julian Huxley, writes about the dense world in his book Evolutionary Humanism (1964), called for a world population policy. Huxley publicly criticized communist and Roman Catholic attitudes toward birth control, population control and overpopulation.

Biology

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace each read and acknowledge the role played by Malthus in the development of their own ideas. Darwin referred to Malthus as the "great philosopher," and said: "This is the doctrine of Malthus, applied with multiple powers to the animal and plant kingdom, for in this case there is no increase in artificial food, and no prudential control from marriage."

Darwin juga menulis:

"In October 1838... I happened to read for the entertainment of Malthus in Population ... soon I realized that in these circumstances profitable variations would tend to be preserved, and which were not profitable to destroy. The result was the formation new species. "

Wallace menyatakan:

"But perhaps the most important book I read is Malthus's Principles of Population ... This is the first major work I have not read to treat any of the problems of philosophical biology, and its principal principle remains with me as permanent ownership , and twenty years later gave me long-sought guidance to effective agents in the evolution of organic species.

Ronald Fisher commented skeptically about Malthusianism as the basis for the theory of natural selection. Fisher emphasizes the role of fecundity (reproduction rate), rather than assuming the actual conditions will not reduce future births.

John Maynard Smith doubts that hunger serves as a great measure, as Malthus describes, but he also receives a basic premise:

The population can not increase geometrically forever. Sooner or later, a lack of resources should make the stall increase.

The next effect

Malthus's ideas continued to have a profound effect. Paul R. Ehrlich has written several books predicting famine as a result of population increase: The Population Bomb (1968); Population, resources, environment: problems in human ecology (1970, with Anne Ehrlich); End of prosperity (1974, with Anne Ehrlich); Population explosion (1990, with Anne Ehrlich). In the late 1960s Ehrlich predicted that hundreds of millions would die from the crisis of overpopulation in the 1970s. Other examples of work that have been accused of "Malthusianism" include the 1972 book The Limits to Growth (published by the Club of Rome) and Global 2000 report to US President Jimmy Carter. Science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov issued many requests for population control that reflect the perspective articulated by the people of Robert Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich.

Ecological Economist Herman Daly has acknowledged the influence of Malthus on his own work on the steady-state economy.

More recently, the "neo-Malthusian" school of scholars has begun to connect populations and economies with third variables, political change and political violence, and to show how variables interact. In the early 1980s, Jack Goldstone connected population variables to the English Revolution 1640-1660 and David Lempert devised a demographic, economic, and political model in multi-ethnic Mauritius. Goldstone has since revolutionized other models by looking at demography and economics and Lempert has explained the purge of Stalin and the Russian Revolution of 1917 in terms of demographic factors that drive political economy. Ted Robert Gurr also cited political violence, as in the Palestinian territories and in Rwanda/Congo (two of the world's fastest growing regions) using similar variables in some comparison cases. These approaches suggest that political ideology follows demographic forces.

Malthus, sometimes considered the founder of modern demographics, continues to inspire and influence futuristic vision, such as that of K. Eric Drexler relating to space advocacy and molecular nanotechnology. As Drexler puts it in Engine of Creation (1986): "In a sense, open space will exceed our growth limit, because we know there is no end of the universe, but Malthus is basically right."

Malthus's growth model now has the name Malthus. Logistic function Pierre FranÃÆ'§ois Verhulst (1804-1849) produces the S-curve. Verhulst developed a logistic growth model favored by many critics of Malthus's growth model in 1838 only after reading Malthus's essay. Malthus also inspired retired physics professor Albert Allen Bartlett to lecture more than 1,500 times on "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy", promoting sustainable living and explaining the mathematics of overpopulation.

See also

• Book of Murder - two satirical attacks against the Poor Act of Amendment Act
• Marquis de Condorcet
• Dingy science
• Famous predictions
• Benjamin Franklin
• William Godwin
• David Hume
• Montesquieu
• Richard Price
• Adam Smith

References

Source

• Malthus, Essay on the Population Principles (1798 1 edition) with Summary Display (1830), and Introduction by Professor Antony Flew. Classic Penguin. ISBN: 0-14-043206-X.
• Malthus, Essay About the Population Principle (1798 edition 1, plus quotation 1803 2nd edition), Introduction by Philip Appleman, and various comments about Malthus edited by Appleman. Norton Critical Editions. ISBNÃ, 0-393-09202-X.
• William Peterson, Malthus, Founder of Modern Demography (1979, 1999). ISBNÃ, 0-7658-0481-6.
• The Online Chapter MALTHUS AND EVOLUTIONISTS: GENERAL CONTEXT OF BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL THEORY from Darwinian Metaphor: The Place of Nature in Victorian Culture by Professor Robert M. Young (1985, 1988, 1994 ). Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Darwin Online, Malthus, Thomas. 1826. 6th edition of population principles . London: John Murray. Volume 1, Volume 2, free online access, fully searchable text plus pdf views of each page.
• Essay on Population Principles public domain audiobooks on LibriVox

Source of the article : Wikipedia