1. Introduction
This essay deals with Thomas Malthus and the first two chapters of his “Essay on the Principle of Population”. At first I will provide a short biographical note on Malthus and I will also mention his main achievements. Then, a summary of Malthus' main ideas of the first two chapters of mentioned work follows. Afterward, the essay concludes with a personal note.
2. A short biography
Thomas Robert Malthus was born in 1766 (course textbook, n. d.) in Surrey, England, as the sixth son of a wealthy intellectual family and he died in 1834 (Weikard, n. d.).
He was mainly concerned with population growth and poverty in the English society of his time. It was an answer to the precarious human situation back then. Malthus identified that the ratio of population growth differs from the ratio of growth of food supply. He also explained two kinds of checks on population: preventive and positive checks (course textbook, n. d.).
Malthus’ main achievement is his population theory. In 1798 he published his most important work, namely the “Essay on the Principle of Population”. Another, revised, edition on the topic was launched in 1803 (course textbook, n. d.). He was also concerned with the concept of rent (course textbook, n. d.). Ricardo’s theory of growth is largely based on Malthus’ population theory (Weikard, n. d.).
3. Summary of the “Essay on the principle of population”
In his text, Malthus provides an explanation for the population growth of human societies. He explains why population growth occurs, which behaviour distinguishes human beings from animals and which remedies exist concerning population growth.
Malthus begins his argument mentioning that all living creatures, no matter which, strive to “[...] increa...
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...ve to decrease before an increase of the living standard is possible, but today’s society shows that a higher number of human beings and an increase of food supply per head do not exclude each other necessarily (Maddison, 2003). This development is mainly due to the technological progress to which also Malthus refers shortly in his text. In the time he lived, these developments were still not observable as clearly as today. Therefore it remains to say that his text is an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of his time, but readjustment to today’s context is necessary.
Works Cited
Course Textbook (n. d.) Chapter 5: Ricardo and Malthus
Maddison, A. (2003) The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Paris, OECD
Malthus, T. R. (1798) Essay on the Principle of Population, Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 1-13
Weikard, H.-P. (n. d.) Lecture Notes III: Malthus and Ricardo
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Thomas Robert Malthus was born on February 13th, 1766, at Dorking, a town south of London. His theory about population was that population growth usually exceeds the amount of food produced for that particular area, so we should try to limit the growth of our population. In his book An Essay on the Principle of Population, As it Effects the Future Improvement of Society, he ...
“An Essay on the Principle of Population” is written by Thomas Malthus where he outlines his theory on population growth. He thought that if population continued to grow, food production wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand and he believed that many people would die due to famine. Either people would have to use more contraception to drop the birth rate, or the death rate would increase due to wars, disease or
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Now, the ideas of Thomas Malthus generally do not apply to the world today. It is important to understand that Malthus wanted to create a theory that explained the success of people in a population. Like Darwin’s theory of evolution (which was helped formed by Malthus doctrine) it is survival of the fittest. I do bel...
Malthus was a part of one of the most widely known economic school, the classical school. He was also one of the most controversial figures in the classical school. Malthus' two most well-known works are “An Essay on the Principle of Population” published in 1798, the main principles of his arguments were radically against to current thinking at the time. He insisted that increases in population would eventually diminish society ability to feed itself. Darwin’s theory of natural selection was influenced by Malthus' analysis of population growth. He insisted that increases in population would eventually diminish society ability to feed itself. The Darwin’s theory of natural selection was influenced by Malthus' analysis of population growth. The second was “Principles of Political Economy” published in 1820 where he stated that an excess of supply over demand was possible and it lead to unemployment. The main principles of his two theories were radically against to current thinking at the time. And he was often misinterpreted, but his views and idea became popular once again in the 20th century with the rise of Keynesian economics. Malthus died on December 23, 1834.
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