
Malthusianism
In Our Time: Philosophy
The Essay on Population
Malthus is shocked by the poverty he encounters while working in a parish and realizes that the population will always grow faster than the food supply. He identifies a vicious cycle where the poor have more children, perpetuating poverty. His father encourages him to publish his ideas and he develops a mathematical theory, showing that population increases geometrically while food supply increases arithmetically. He argues that famine, war and disease are the ways to check population growth.
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