Thomas Malthus

There are two sorts of reasons that everyone should study Malthus: reasons to do with argument and style, and reasons to do with his arguments, and the way society should be organised – basically, politics and ethics with a good helping of sociology.

Malthus' most famous work, An Essay On The Principle of Population, is much maligned. His solution to the problem he foresaw was to withdraw the support provided by the parishes of his time (the book was written in 1798) under the Poor Law for the relief of those who could not provide for themselves. He thought that the only effective way to control population was to encourage people not to have families that they could not support, and the way to do this was to leave them to their own devices. Poor relief only encouraged families in those that could not afford them. The problem he saw was that population tends to increase geometrically, and left to its own devices would tend to double every 25 years, while the increase in the food supply is arithmetic, and therefore will soon be outstripped by the number of mouths to feed. For reasons he could never have foreseen, it now seems that he might have had a point in seeing the problem, but his proposed solution was at best naïve and at worst downright callous and cruel. I'm pretty sure he didn't see it that way. He was a Church of England clergyman, good natured, and well meaning. He was also concerned with the truth of the matter, as opposed to what he regarded as his adversaries unfounded speculation. It's just that he could see no other way to provide for the number of mouths that would soon populate the planet.

The book discusses the issues in detail. He examines population growth from the best statistics then available, and he explains in detail why it is that agricultural output cannot keep up. He uses the example of America, where at the time there was a vast surplus of resource over requirement, as well as Europe and beyond. He discusses human nature as well as he is able. And he puts forward his solution to the problem.

Malthus was inspired by the work of William Godwin and others who believed that humanity and society was progressing inexorably towards perfection. The 2nd edition of Godwin's major work “An Inquiry Concerning Political Justice” had been published in 1796. Malthus was a mathematician, he believed as we do that policy should be based on observed facts, and what he saw around him convinced him that what Godwin said just wasn't so. So he picked up his pen.

Anyone who has an interest in social science would do well to study Malthus' case carefully. He leaves no stone unturned, and it is educational just to follow his train of thought critically and see if you agree with him, and if not, why not. A discussion group would be almost certain to be enlivened by the controversies arising from Malthus' case. It would soon range into politics, and into ethics, and into social anthropology.

Apart from this, Malthus, uncommonly for his age, writes with great clarity. His English is precise and clear. He writes to defend a case without being carried away by his feelings. He states his position politely and considers his opponent's counter-arguments in the same vein. And he is persuasive; his argument develops step by step and carries the reader along with it. It is an object lesson in how to create a case, how to argue for a cause, how to set out the facts revealed by research. It is no accident that Malthus met his adversary Godwin and that they discussed the question together on numerous occasions, dining together and disagreeing without falling out, for a number of years. Students of written English can also learn from him.

Kindle users at least have no excuse for not getting a copy – you can download it from Amazon starting from £1.73 or from www.gutenberg.org for free.