From Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION

The gist of what you need to take from Malthus are the checks to population and the importance of food and water in the natural order of civilized human life.
In later editions of his essay, Malthus clarified his view that if society relied on human misery to limit population growth, then sources of misery (, hunger, disease, and war) would inevitably afflict society, as would volatile economic cycles. On the other hand, "preventive checks" to population that limited birthrates, such as later marriages, could ensure a higher standard of living for all, while also increasing economic stability. Regarding possibilities for freeing man from these limits, Malthus argued against a variety of imaginable solutions, such as the notion that agricultural improvements could expand without limit. The vast bulk of continuing commentary on Malthus, however, extends and expands on the "Malthusian controversy" of the early 19th century. In Ireland where (writing to in 1817) Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from the soil into large manufacturing and commercial Towns", a comparatively early contribution was (1821) by the polymath and physician . Finding fault in Malthus's calculations and juxtapositions--"the possible increase of man in America" measured against "the probable increase in [food] production in Great Britain"—and insisting upon the advantages mankind derives from "improved industry, improved conveyance, improvements in morals, government and religion", Stokes argued that Ireland's difficulty lay not in her "numbers", but in indifferent government. However, in 1830, 32 years after the first edition, Malthus published a condensed version titled A Summary View on the Principle of Population, which included remarks about criticisms of the main book. Traits such as collaboration, intelligence, empathy and creativity would be the parts of "human nature" which would be expressed, rather than competitiveness and aggression, as are necessary in today's system.

Because of the view of human nature which was upheld when Malthus wrote An Essay on The Principal of Population, he saw the human (and especially the masses of the poor) as children which must be controlled by poverty and starvation rather than helped to escape such poverty. The Malthusian controversy to which the gave rise in the decades following its publication tended to focus attention on the birth rate and marriage rates. The neo-Malthusian controversy, comprising related debates of many years later, has seen a similar central role assigned to the numbers of children born.The goal of Malthusian theory is to explain how population and food production expand, with the latter experiencing arithmetic growth and the former experiencing exponential growth. The controversy, however, concerns the relevance of Malthusian theory in the present world. This hypothesis is inapplicable in a number of ways. First, the hypothesis is rendered irrelevant, due to a disregard for technological advancement. This is because food production has increased as a result of technological advancements such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Second, the mathematical model employed to formulate the hypothesis is incorrect since it was constrained to England's specific situation. Other findings, such as food production exceeding population increase, may be borne out if the modeling could employ wide locations like Australia. The Malthusian hypothesis is also limited by social change about family size, as individuals tend to prefer a manageable family owing to economic restrictions. Food production can also outpace population expansion, due to the industrial revolution. Another limitation of this theory is the belief that overall income is a key factor of population health, implying that wealthy countries will have various solutions for their rapidly rising populations. An expanding population can be considered as an increase of available human capacity for increasing food production. The static aspect of the Malthusian hypothesis, which is based on the rule of decreasing returns, limits its applicability. Finally, Malthusian Theory's failure to determine whether birth rates match death rates hampered its application, because it was possible that the population was not rising as fast as food production due to the presence of deaths. Sacred to the memory of the Rev THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, long known to the lettered world by his admirable writings on the social branches of political economy, particularly by his essay on population.

[PDF] An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population, or a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions (London: John Murray 1826). 6th ed.

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In his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus observed that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-being of the populace, but the improvement was temporary because it led to population growth, which in turn restored the original per capita production level.

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Vol. 2 of the 6th expanded edition of the work. There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first. In this work Malthus argues that there is a disparity between the rate of growth of population (which increases geometrically) and the rate of growth of agriculture (which increases only arithmetically). He then explores how populations have historically been kept in check.

An Essay on the Principle of Population