Summary
Author of the population theory — population growing exponentially, sustenance linearly, with catastrophic cyclic corrections — that Franz Oppenheimer criticised in Das Bevölkerungsgesetz des T.R. Malthus as a wrong turn towards misunderstanding evolution (Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, PDF p.61-63).
Details
- Oppenheimer approved Malthus’s hypothesis for the animal world but argued he forgot humans have arms and not only mouths, their creativity being able to increase agricultural production enough for stable population growth (PDF p.62).
- Oppenheimer dubbed the apocalyptic reading of Malthus “prophetic Malthusianism”, derived from a misunderstanding of Malthus’s use of the term tendency (PDF p.62-63).
Related pages
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, Franz Oppenheimer, Degeneration