thomas malthus essay on the principle of population

Review of Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

Malthus’ warning against overpopulation gains increasing significance nowadays because the world’s population continues to grow and rapidly approach the absolute limit set by the carrying capacity of the earth’s environment. This critical review examines an essay that there is the tendency of the human population to exceed their resources. Also, this criticizes the argumentation that checks in the form of famine, disease etc. are necessary to keep societies in the level of their subsistence. The "Essay on the Principle of Population” was written by Thomas Malthus, an English cleric, scholar, and influential in the fields of demography and political economy. His presentation was so striking that his name became attached to the idea of overpopulation until now.
His postulates—that the food is necessary for existence and that the “passion between the sexes” is also necessary and will remain constant were absolutely true and no one in this earth can oppose or doubt. In contrast, the mathematical interpretation he proposed, though somehow credible was derived from impotent and inadequate evidences and supporting details. The illustration of unequal power between the population and subsistence was not well justified since the evidence for the agricultural growth was just based on what Malthus conceived during that time. He doesn’t even notice that there is a possibility of the improvement of agricultural production in the future. Nowadays, everyone is witnessing a population explosion that threatens today’s global resources, despite enormous improvements in the agricultural productivity which Malthus did not foresee. His implicit underestimation of the slow growth of food production added to the pessimistic tone of the essay. Malthus idea made him criticized by other readers because of its “unrealistic” projection that the growth of the population will increase exponentially. But digging up to this prediction, Malthus became successful in his intention to awaken everyone’s unconscious mind in the issue of expanding population as the major cause of poverty.
In his essay, Malthus introduced the positive and preventive checks. In line with the use of latter, it is now common that the birth rate decreased within the last few decades. This is somehow a good news but the increasing advocacy for the artificial contraceptives and other birth control measures creates a reverse impression in the catholic perspective. Given that Thomas Malthus was a priest and supposedly a pro-life activist, his introduction of preventive checks, which he also labeled as a “sin” made him totally different from his religious belief. According to Malthus, human race has options not available to other animals. It can practice birth control, abortion, and even gratify the passion of sex without marriage through prostitutes. These ideas are contrary to the morality and teachings of Catholicism because birth control (except abstinence) is considered sinful based on the belief that sexual acts must be both the expression of love and procreative; abortion is an act of murder; and sexual relation outside marriage violates its sacredness.
The essay as a whole delivered a pessimistic approach in viewing the society. Malthus created fear to the people about the grim future instead of urging them to be part of the realization of progress. Though he proposed remedies, these were obvious, general and already known during his time. Insufficient information about population derived him to questionable proposition; that he might provide solutions in line with the improvement of social and industrial system and proper religious and moral education.