Malthus on the Desire of Bettering Our Condition and the Vis Medicatrix Reipublicae

John Pullen

History of Political Economy, 2019, vol. 51, issue 4, 731-751

Abstract: A well-known and fundamental element in the population theory of Thomas Robert Malthus is the concept of prudential or moral restraint. A less well-known but just as fundamental element is the “desire of bettering our condition,†also described by Malthus as the “vis medicatrix reipublicae,†which has been freely translated as the healing power of society. This article aims to explain the meaning and significance given by Malthus in his theory of population to these two concepts. Their essential role in preventing or remedying overpopulation does not seem to have received adequate recognition in the secondary literature on Malthus.

Keywords: overpopulation; prudential restraint; moral restraint; bettering our condition; preventive check (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-7685212 link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:731-751

Access Statistics for this article

History of Political Economy is currently edited by Kevin D. Hoover

More articles in History of Political Economy from Duke University Press Duke University Press 905 W. Main Street, Suite 18B Durham, NC 27701.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Center for the History of Political Economy Webmaster ().