Essay on Thomas Malthus and the Principle of Population

1. Introduction This essay deals with Thomas Malthus and the first two chapters of his â€Å"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†¦show more content†¦This also puts a limit on the amount of procreation possible, but however, all species strive to surpass these limitations (Malthus, p. 2). In this aspect, human beings are not any different from plants or animals, but in contrast to them they do not only act out of instinct. Additionally, they use their reasoning to determine whether they will be able to care sufficiently for their children (Malthus, p. 2). Malthus states that there are certain checks on population and points out that there is no society without any check applied. An unchecked population increases in a geometrical ratio, what means that it doubles itself every twenty-five years. Instead, the available food does not increase geometrically, but gradually diminishes, because of the limited amount of fertile land. In contrast to the population, the agricultural production, under favourable circumstances, is able to only increase in an arithmetical ratio (Malthus, p. 6). A gap between population growth and the amount of food available rises. As a result, to further increase the food supply, it is necessary to improve the quality of the soil (Malthus, p. 4). Malthus points out that there is still land which is not cultivated, even in Europe, and that especially in this region it is possible to enhance the soil quality due to the progress of the industrialization, but it will be gradually diminishing (Malthus, p.Show MoreRelat edThe Industrial Revolution And The Public Health Revolution1697 Words   |  7 Pages Since our origin, worldwide human population has steadily been on the rise. We humans emerged as a species about 200,000 years ago. In geological time, that is really incredibly recent. Just 10,000 years ago, there were one million of us. By 1800, just over 200 years ago, there were 1 billion of us. By 1960, 50 years ago, there were 3 billion of us. There are now over 7 billion of us. 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