Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T15:21:15.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Malthus redux, and still blind in the same eye

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Don Ross
Don Ross*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Private bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand. don.ross931@gmail.com School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Private bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. http://uct.academia.edu/DonRoss Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA 30303.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gowdy & Krall (G&K) essentially recapitulate Malthus's classic argument for ecological pessimism in modern biological dress. Their reasoning also reproduces Malthus's blindness to the implications of technological innovation. Agriculture might have suppressed human individualism as G&K insist, but technology has tended to foster it. This complicates human ecological prospects in a non-Malthusian way, and it might additionally provide the resources for deliverance from disaster.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hamilton, C. (2010) Requiem for a species. Routledge.Google Scholar
Herrmann-Pillath, C. (2013) Foundations of economic evolution. Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Keith, D. (2013) A case for climate engineering. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malthus, T. R. (1798/2008) An essay on the principle of population. Oxford University Press. (Original work published in 1798).Google Scholar
Morris, C. (1972) The discovery of the individual: 1050–1200. Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Phelps, E. (2013) Mass flourishing. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, D. (2013) The evolution of individualistic norms. In: Cooperation and its evolution, ed. Sterelny, K., Joyce, R., Calcott, B. & Fraser, B., pp. 17–43. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ross, D. (2014) Philosophy of economics. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar