ual nations and states from outside powers. De Maistre
also asserted that the various forms of PROTESTANTISM
were doomed to fall into “indifference” because they
could not resist science and rationalism. His other
writings continued his defense of MONARCHYand the
church. Many consider him one of the best stylists of
his time, and his works are marked by precise reason-
ing and dialectical insight. De Maistre died while writ-
ing Les Soirées de Saint-Petersbourg(Evening parties of
Saint Petersburg).
Further Reading
Lebrun R., Throne and Altar: The Political and Religious Thought
of Joseph de Maistre.Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press,
1965.
Malthus, Thomas Robert (1776–1834) Politi-
cal economist and moral philosopher
Malthus argued that human populations outstrip their
food supplies if reproduction is left unchecked. This
antiutopian, politically CONSERVATIVEview encouraged
fierce argument that continues to the present.
The argument was first presented by Malthus in a
pamphlet published anonymously in 1798, titled An
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.In it, Malthus claimed that human populations
increase at a geometrical rate (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,
128, 256, etc.) while agricultural output increases at
an arithmetical rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.). It fol-
lows from this that without some check on population
growth, the number people to be fed will be greater
than the food supply available to feed to them.
Malthus proposed two kinds of checks on birthrates—
misery and vice. The motivation for Malthus’s stark
“scientific” presentation of this idea can be seen in the
title of the pamphlet: He wanted to counter what he
saw as the unwarranted optimism of his intellectual
contemporaries, most particularly William GODWIN’s as
expressed in his Enquirer.
In 1803, Malthus published a very much expanded
second edition titled An Essay on the Principle of Popu-
lation, or a View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human
Happiness with an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting
the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils Which It
Occasions.The second edition is usually described as
the “Second Essay,” and the first edition as the “First
Essay.” Although the Second Essay is much longer, the
most significant theoretical addition is the claim that
in addition to vice and misery as checks on population
growth should be added “moral restraint.” This third
check Malthus understood as delayed marriage—cou-
ples would not marry and therefore not reproduce
until a later age. What is important here is the idea
that what appears in the First Essay as an inevitable,
scientifically determined human tragedy can now, in
the Second Essay, be controlled in some measure by
human intervention. Malthus translated his ideas into
particular policy proposals, including the suggestion
that poor children should not receive assistance. Of
course, these proposals looked to the long-term benefit
of societies, but they appeared harsh and, as things
turned out, unnecessary.
The reception of Malthus’s argument was over-
whelmingly hostile. Many, including Godwin and later
MARX, were committed to the idea that political and
social PROGRESS would overcome nature and were
unwilling to contemplate the thought of naturally im-
posed limits on their optimism. In literature, Malthus
is mocked and portrayed as cruel and heartless. Others
though recognized the importance of his thought,
including Ricardo, John Stuart MILL, and KEYNES. Dar-
win acknowledges the importance of Malthus’s work in
the development of his ideas.
One objection to Malthus’s argument has been to
the claim that food production can grow only arith-
metically. He was unable to foresee the role of technol-
ogy in increasing agricultural output, and so his
argument seemed to rest on an untrue premise. How-
ever, whether or not the technology of food production
can continue to keep us free of Malthus’s conclusions
remains unclear. A second objection concerns Malthus’s
moral refusal to consider the role of contraception as
way of controlling population growth.
Malthus was born in Surrey, England, and studied
at Jesus College, Cambridge. He married in 1804 and
took up a position as professor of history at Haileybury
College in 1805.Further Reading
Keynes, J.M. Essays and Sketches in Biography.New York: Merid-
ian Books, 1956.Mandeville, Bernard (1670–1733) Moral and
economic theorist
Mandeville argued that nations prospered and became
great through the vices of their individual members.Mandeville, Bernard 197