Malthus' Economics, Social Darwinism and Eugenics

             The intricate relationships between Malthusianism, social Darwinism, eugenics and sterilization may be revealed through investigating both the common threads and distinct effects that each theory has. Malthusianism, the first of the four principles, was the economical and philosophical base of eugenics, and the Malthusianism social ideas about how to avoid the natural increase of the poor also inspired Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which was later applied to culture as social Darwinism. Sterilization soon erupted in modern cultures and has taken a direct line from eugenics, which can be seen in thousands of sterilization cases.
             Malthusianism started as a basic theory which stated that overpopulation is the cause of poverty, and that welfare contributions to needy families contributed to overpopulation by encouraging reproduction among the lower classes. Thomas Malthus, author of Malthusianism, claimed that a lack of sexual restraint was directly related to poverty, yet he opposed any form of contraceptives, thus penalizing the women belonging to the lower working classes. In his many calculations, Malthus did not include the family sizes of the wealthy, nor did he consider the many bastard children born as a result of extramarital affairs. The math itself was off, for his population increased geometrically while subsistence increased arithmetically. Thus, population growth was set as 2-4-8-16-32-64, while subsistence was 2-3-4-5-6-7-8. His economic policies forced the poor to abandon community responsibility and to work for low wages in factory jobs. Soon, Malthusianism was turned into Neo-Malthusianism, which often opposed the main central ideas of Malthus on the platform of birth control. This radical version of Malthusianism was based on the fact that if population could be controlled, a perfect society would then be created.
             Though Charles Darwin cited Malthus's policies in his own, Origin of Species, his pub...

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Malthus' Economics, Social Darwinism and Eugenics. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 16:24, April 19, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/100349.html