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Geometric Population Increase: A Note on Priority of Usage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Geoffrey Gilbert
Geoffrey Gilbert
Affiliation:
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
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Extract

Perhaps the most notorious choice of words ever made by an economist was the pair of mathematical terms used by Malthus to describe the maximum possible rates of increase in population and subsistence: “geometric” to describe population growth, and “arithmetic” to describe the growth of subsistence. If Malthus could have foreseen the linguistic and logical difficulties entailed by the geometric-arithmetic distinction, he might have looked for different adjectives. But what a loss to the “bravura” style of the Essay on Population so admired by Keynes! Consider the rhetorical impact of: “Population tends to increase at an exponential rate higher than the rate at which the food supply increases.” Is this the language of an economic classic?

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Fall 1989 , pp. 296 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

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