 |
| Thomas Robert Malthus |
Thomas Robert Malthus was a minister/economist who is best
known for his theories regarding population growth versus sustainability. He
was the first person to hold a professional position in the field of economics
and he was a member of several clubs and societies for intellectuals like
himself. Malthus' ideas were well ahead of their time during his life and some
of them led to a lot of criticism for Thomas. However, many of his most
controversial ideas are now regarded as correct.
Thomas Robert Malthus was born in 1766 on an estate in
Dorking, Surrey. He was one of eight children. He had one older brother and six
sisters. His father was a gentleman by the name of Daniel Malthus. Daniel seems to have been the guiding influence in Thomas' life. He did not attend
school in his youth, but was taught by his father and some tutors until he was
eighteen. Thomas Malthus then began attending Jesus College in Cambridge. Four
years later, in 1788, he became an ordained minister of the Church of England.
He continued his studies until 1791, when he received his M.A.
Two years after Thomas Malthus received his degree, he
became a Fellow of Jesus College. A few years after that, he became a
curate in the town of Albury. He lived close to his father, with whom he seems
to have conducted conversations about his burgeoning ideas about economics and
population growth. For years, Thomas mulled over the issue of population growth
versus sustainability. It was his belief that unfettered population growth was
detrimental to a society's success. He was not the first man to
have such ideas, but they did go against mainstream thinking of the time.
In 1798, Thomas Malthus anonymously published a pamphlet
titled "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." This pamphlet and subsequent related works
would become his legacy, despite the fact that his work was hardly relegated to
his theories on this subject.
Within the pamphlet, Thomas Malthus discusses his belief
that population is capable of increasing much faster than food supplies. He
also mentioned that natural occurrences, such as disaster, war, famine and
disease are not enough to keep the human population from multiplying. Thomas
Malthus also believed that humans are doomed to procreate constantly; he viewed
it as a 'vice.' Taking all of these beliefs into account, Thomas concluded that
population growth is doomed to outpace the growth of food on the planet.
Popular belief at the time was that increasing populations was a good sign for
a society's economy; so many people viewed Malthus as something of a doomsayer
and disregarded his theories. We know now that what he theorized is possible.
In 1803, a renamed and heavily revised version of Thomas
Malthus' Essay on Population was published. In his new version, Malthus
suggested that the only way to keep people from overpopulating the planet they
would need to initiate their own means of population control, such as voluntary
abstinence. He also included possible links between population growth, class
and education. He suggested that if poor people were educated and given better
job opportunities, this would prevent them from procreating early in life, thus
inhibiting population growth.
One year after he published his revision, Thomas Malthus got
married. In doing so, he lost his fellowship at the Jesus College. He was
38-years-old, at the time. He and his wife went on to have a happy marriage and
produce three children together. In 1800, Malthus became interested in various
other aspects of the economy. He published many more works on his economical
theories, some of which were received as well as his theories on population.
In 1805, Thomas Malthus accepted a position as Professor of
Modern History and Political Economy at the East India College in Hailebury. He
kept that position until his death on December 23, 1834. This was the first
professional position in economics ever held.
Sources
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), retrieved 3/30/10,
homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/malthus.htm
Thomas Malthus Biography, retrieved 3/30/10,
age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/malthus_thomas.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment