Essai sur le Principe de Population.

4 tomes en 4 volumes in-8 de : I/ XXIX et 434 pp.; II/ (2) ff., 420 pp., (2) pp.; III/ (2) ff., 384 pp., (3) pp. ; IV/ (2) ff., 374 pp., (3) pp.

Brochure de l’éditeur, exemplaire non rogné, tel que paru. Etui.

215 X 138 mm.

Malthus, Thomas Robert. Essai sur le principe de population, Ou Exposé des effets passés et présens de l’action de cette cause sur le bonheur du genre humain ; suivi de quelques recherches relatives à l’espérance de guérir ou d’adoucir les maux qu’elle entraîne.

Genève, Paris, Abraham Cherbuliez, 1830.

Très rare troisième édition française du plus important ouvrage de Malthus qui influencera profondément la théorie de l’évolution de Darwin.

Pierre Prévost avait entrepris de traduire l’ouvrage fondamental de Malthus en 1809 en se basant sur l’édition de 1807. Malthus l’ayant encouragé à réviser sa traduction, il entreprit de retraduire l’ouvrage en se reposant cette fois sur la cinquième édition datant de 1817.

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), called “l’enfant terrible” of the economists, was an English demographer, statistician and political economist, who is best known for his groundbreaking views on population growth, presented in his "Essays on the Principle of Population". Malthus actually turned political, economic and social thought upside down with this work, which has caused him to be considered one of the 100 most influential persons in history (Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the most Influential Persons in History, 1978). He was condemned by Marx and Engels, and opposed by the socialists universally, but the work was of immense impact on not only politics, economics, social sciences but also on natural sciences.

“Later in the “Origin of Species” Darwin wrote that the struggle for existence "is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms; for in this case there can be no artificial increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage".

« One of the most controversial figures in the history of economics, Malthus achieved fame chiefly from the population doctrine that is now closely linked with his name. Contrary to late-18th century views that it was possible to improve people’s living standards, Malthus held that any such improvements would cause the population to grow and thereby reverse these gains…» (Pressman, 29, 32).

« Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was one of the founders of modern economics. The central idea of the essay, and the hub of Malthusian theory, was a simple one. The population of a community, Malthus suggested, increases geometrically, while food supplies increase only arithmetically. If the natural increase in population occurs the food supply becomes insufficient and the size of the population is checked by “misery”, that is the poorest sections of the community suffer disease and famine. The socialists universally opposed him, Marx and Engels condemned his theories and the conservatives never fully accepted his ideas. But his influence on social policy was considerable. Darwin acknowledged Malthus as a source of the idea of “the struggle for existence” » (PMM, 251).

« Malthus’s law”, that population increases at a greater rate than the means of subsistence, was one of the first and is still one of the most widely debated of modern economic theories. The work aroused a storm of controversy since Malthus held that checks on the growth of population would be necessary, a theory which is still not finally extinguished. Malthus has exercised a strong influence, not merely in economics, but in the whole realm of social theory » (PMM, 393).

« In his autobiography, Darwin credits his reading of Thomas Robert Malthus’s An essay on the principle of Population with providing the key insight into the causal mechanism of evolution. The views of Malthus (1766-1834) had a profound effect on the political and legal thinking of England. Darwin applied Malthus’s conceptual framework of “a struggle”, developed by Malthus as a framework for understanding human economic and social structures, to the organic world » (P. Thompson, Issues in Evolutionary Ethics).

Séduisant exemplaire à toutes marges, entièrement non rogné, conservé dans ses brochures d’éditeur, tel que paru.