An Essay on the Principle of Population
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
An Essay on the Principle of Population
| Author | Thomas Robert Malthus |
|---|---|
| Published | 1798 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Malthus’s 1798 argument that population grows geometrically while the means of subsistence grow arithmetically, so growth is checked by want rather than dissolved by improvement. Written against Godwin and Condorcet’s faith in indefinite progress, it is the pessimistic limit case much of economics has been answering since. |
An Essay on the Principle of Population
Where I heard about it
- University of Austin — assigned in Intellectual Foundations of Economics on its Fall 2025 reading list (November 2025), alongside Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions, Mill’s Utilitarianism, the Communist Manifesto, Lenin’s State and Revolution and Hayek’s Pretence of Knowledge. Full curriculum: UATX Fall Reading List.
About this edition
Published anonymously in 1798, then rewritten repeatedly over the next three decades as the objections came in. The first edition and the much-expanded later ones are very different lengths; the course names no edition.
Connections
- UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this was assigned in.
- The University of Austin — the institution whose course list this is.
- Economics — the course subject.
- Degrowth — the modern descendant of the argument.
- Progress — what Malthus was writing against.
- Ideological Family Tree
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.