UNIB10003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Eugenics, Protestant Work Ethic, Great Divergence
Key concepts
• Exponential : doubling at each cycle
• Arithmetical : uniform increment from one cycle to the next
• Eugenics : programmes out forward to improve human populations through selective
breeding. May take the form of restricting reproduction of certain groups or encouraging
certain groups to reproduce
The Malthusian Dilemma - Breaking Nature's bounds
Prelude: building a bridge from the great divergence to Malthusian
• Great divergence
o Europe exponential economic growth from 1700 CE compared to Chinese stability and
stagnation
• Matter of contingency
• Moral explanations are rejected
o Protestant work ethic
o Technological superiority
o Cultural
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• Traditional association
o Conquest
o War
o Famine
o Death
Ecology, history and a new horseman or two
• A powerful metaphor for a Hobbesian life
• For much of human history
o Pestilence, war, famine bring death.
o Life expectancy at birth incredibly short
o Most people don’t life beyond 40
Food, famine, desire
• Hunter gatherers society place low impact on ecology, alter ecology but establish a balance
within ecology
• Development of sedentism/agriculture, allow support of larger population
• Populations growth predicted on rising life expectancy, or child mortality
Love and hunger
• Driven by need to feed and need to reproduce
Malthus and Malthuism
