Malthusianism

Cultural

A pessimistic viewpoint on population and world resources, based on the doctrines of Thomas Malthus. Malthusianism holds that population tends to increase faster than the supply of food, thus preventing the steady progress of mankind. Malthus advocated premarital chastity, late marriage, and sexual abstinence as partial solutions.

Example Sentences

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Pop culture has even spun Malthusianism into a meme, if you know what Soylent Green is made of.

From Salon • Nov. 15, 2022

Economists consider Malthusianism, at least as understood in modern times, to be a discredited doctrine.

From New York Times • Jun. 6, 2011

French industry seems to operate on an inverted system of Malthusianism, holding down production to keep pace with the population.

From Time Magazine Archive

Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life.

From Charles Darwin by Allen, Grant

It is not easy while preaching practical Malthusianism to the clergy to spend much fervour in preaching against practical Neo-Malthusianism to the laity.

From The Task of Social Hygiene by Ellis, Havelock

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023