|
The book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'' was first published in 1798 under the alias Joseph Johnson,〔 via Internet Archive〕〔"Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population: Library of Economics" (description), Liberty Fund, Inc., 2000, ''EconLib.org'' webpage: (EconLib-MalPop ).〕 but the author was soon identified as Thomas Robert Malthus. While it was not the first book on population, it has been acknowledged as the most influential work of its era. Its 6th edition was independently cited as a key influence by both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in developing the theory of natural selection. A key portion of the book was dedicated to what is now known as Malthus' Iron Law of Population. This name itself is retrospective, based on the iron law of wages, which is the reformulation of Malthus' position by Ferdinand Lassalle, who in turn derived the name from Goethe's "great, eternal iron laws" in ''Das Göttliche.''〔''Critique of the Gotha Programme,'' Karl Marx, (Chapter 2 ), (footnote 1 ), (1875)〕 This theory suggested that growing population rates would contribute to a rising supply of labour that would inevitably lower wages. In essence, Malthus feared that continued population growth would lend itself to poverty. One immediate impact of Malthus's book was that it fueled the debate about the size of the population in Britain and led to (or at least greatly accelerated) the passing of the Census Act 1800. This Act enabled the holding of a national census in England, Wales and Scotland, starting in 1801 and continuing every ten years to the present. In 1803, Malthus published a major revision to his first edition, as the same title second edition;〔The fourth edition appeared in 1807 in two volumes. See , (volume II ) via Google Books〕 his final version, the 6th edition, was published in 1826.〔 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. == Overview == Between 1798 and 1826 Malthus published six editions of his famous treatise, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject. He wrote the original text in reaction to the optimism of his father and his father's associates (notably Rousseau) regarding the future improvement of society. Malthus also constructed his case as a specific response to writings of William Godwin (1756–1836) and of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794). Malthus regarded ideals of future improvement in the lot of humanity with skepticism, considering that throughout history a segment of every human population seemed relegated to poverty. He explained this phenomenon by arguing that population growth generally expanded in times and in regions of plenty until the size of the population relative to the primary resources caused distress: Malthus also saw that societies through history had experienced at one time or another epidemics, famines, or wars: events that masked the fundamental problem of populations overstretching their resource limitations: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「An Essay on the Principle of Population」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|