Thomas Robert Malthus and the Utilitarians

Samuel Hollander

History of Economics Review, 2016, vol. 64, issue 1, 2-26

Abstract: In his Utilitarianism and Malthus’s Virtue Ethics (2014) Sergio Cremaschi argues for a distinctive, theologically based, utilitarianism adopted by Thomas Robert Malthus contrasting with the utilitarianism of the Philosophical Radicals. This paper restates and reinforces the case for a coalescence of the Malthusian and secular utilitarian perspectives primarily on the following grounds. In an effort to reconcile theology and welfare, Malthus effectively undermined the former by radically reinterpreting the scriptures to justify a reduced birth rate. His transition in the 1820s to the Ricardian vision of industrial development turned on perceived changes in the empirical and legislative environment with no theological input whatsoever. Moreover, while Malthus at times perceived virtue divorced from consequences for happiness, so too did Ricardo and J.S. Mill, even when at odds with the wealth and happiness components of the utilitarian maximand.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/10370196.2016.1224025

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