马尔萨斯是著名的人口学家和政治经济学家，近代人口学的创建者。1798年，马尔萨斯出版了《人口论》一书。本书指出，因为人口呈几何级数增加而生产资料只会以线性速率增加，无限制的人口增长会超过有限的食物供应，从而导致饥饿与贫困。所以要限制人口增长，使两者保持平衡。马尔萨斯提出的“人口理论”被认为是“永恒的人口自然规律”。本书不仅对人口学与经济学等相关学科意义重大，对于达尔文的进化生物学理论也有着重要影响，是一部经久不衰的经典著作。
本书可供所有对社会学、经济学、生物学及相关交叉学科感兴趣的读者阅读，也可作为专业书籍供相关领域的研究学者参考。
- Front Matter
- CHAPTER I
- Question stated.—Little prospect of a determination of it, from the enmity
of the opposing parties.—The principal argument against the perfectibility
of man and of society has never been fairly answered.—Nature of the
difficulty arising from population.—Outline of the principal argument of
the essay.
- CHAPTER II
- The different ratios in which population and food increase.—The necessary
effects of these different ratios of increase.—Oscillation produced by
them in the condition of the lower classes of society.—Reasons why this
oscillation has not been so much observed as might be expected.—Three
propositions on which the general argument of the essay depends.—The
different states in which mankind have been known to exist proposed to
be examined with reference to these three propositions.
- CHAPTER III
- The savage or hunter state shortly reviewed.—The shepherd state, or the
tribes of barbarians that overran the Roman Empire.—The superiority
of the power of population to the means of subsistence—the cause of the
great tide of Northern Emigration.
- CHAPTER IV
- State of civilized nations.—Probability that Europe is much more populous
now than in the time of Julius Caesar.—Best criterion of population.—
Probable error of Hume in one of the criterions that he proposes as assisting in an estimate of population.—Slow increase of population
at present in most of the states of Europe.—The two principal checks
to population.—The first or preventive check examined with regard to
England.
- CHAPTER V
