An Essay on the Principle of Population
E7128
An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
Aliases (5)
- Essay on the Principle of Population ×2
- An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2nd edition (1803, greatly expanded) ×1
- An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers ×1
- Essay on the Population of England ×1
- Malthusian theory of population ×1
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
→
treatise → work of demography → work of political economy → |
| argument |
population growth is limited by checks such as famine, disease, and war
→
|
| author |
Thomas Robert Malthus
→
|
| centralThesis |
population tends to increase faster than the means of subsistence
→
unchecked population growth is exponential while food production grows at best arithmetically → |
| countryOfOrigin |
United Kingdom
→
|
| criticizes |
Marquis de Condorcet
→
William Godwin → |
| describes |
positive checks on population such as disease
→
positive checks on population such as famine → positive checks on population such as war → |
| field |
demography
→
economics → |
| firstEditionPublisher |
J. Johnson
→
|
| followedBy |
An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2nd edition (1803, greatly expanded)
→
|
| fullTitle |
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers
→
|
| genre |
non-fiction
→
|
| hasImpactOn |
debates on overpopulation
→
environmental thought → social policy debates → |
| historicalContext |
Industrial Revolution
→
late 18th century Britain → |
| influenced |
Alfred Russel Wallace
→
Charles Darwin → classical economics → demographic studies → evolutionary theory → |
| introducesConcept |
Malthusian theory of population
→
|
| keyConcept |
Malthusian trap
→
checks on population → geometric versus arithmetic growth → subsistence level of wages → |
| literaryPeriod |
18th century
→
|
| notableFor |
being one of the foundational texts of population economics
→
influencing the development of the concept of natural selection → |
| originalLanguage |
English
→
|
| placeOfPublication |
London
→
|
| proposes |
preventive checks on population such as moral restraint
→
|
| publicationYear |
1798
→
|
| shortTitle |
Essay on the Principle of Population
→
|
| subject |
demography
→
food supply → political economy → population theory → scarcity → |
Referenced by (12)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Richard Price
("Essay on the Population of England")
→
Thomas Malthus → Thomas Malthus → Thomas Robert Malthus → |
notableWork |
|
Principles of Political Economy
→
The Population Bomb ("Malthusian theory of population") → |
relatedWork |
|
Malthusian catastrophe
→
|
describedIn |
|
An Essay on the Principle of Population
("An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2nd edition (1803, greatly expanded)")
→
|
followedBy |
|
An Essay on the Principle of Population
("An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers")
→
|
fullTitle |
|
classical economics
→
|
hasKeyText |
|
An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent
("Essay on the Principle of Population")
→
|
relatedTo |
|
An Essay on the Principle of Population
("Essay on the Principle of Population")
→
|
shortTitle |