ECON 2233 Lecture Notes - Thomas Robert Malthus, Marquis De Condorcet, William Godwin
Document Summary
Notes on the population theory of thomas robert malthus. As the end of the 18th century england was faced with a growing and increasingly urbanized population. Consequently the poverty of the lower classes had become more noticeable. England found it necessary to begin to import food. Daniel malthus, the father of the economist and clergyman, thomas robert malthus [1766-1834], was both attracted to and sympathetic with the utopian thought of such men as william godwin and the marquis de condorcet. Their view, reflecting the thesis set forth by rousseau in his discourse on the origins of inequality was that human beings are shaped by their environment. Thus, the poverty around them was the result of social and economic institutions. See the recent book by thomas sowell, constrained visions, in which sowell classifies thinkers into those with constrained and those with unconstrained visions. Rousseau, daniel malthus, godwin, and condorcet fit into sowell"s category of thinkers with unconstrained visions.
