HOBBES THE MALTUSIAN

Coming now into the concluding entry of the Hobbes series in this section, I ask the reader to keep in mind that this series by no means exhausts the Englishman’s presence in my book, as there are more Hobbesian entries and references to him scattered around in thematic sections, which is easy to ascertain by using the Find function. This arrangement is extremely imperfect, of course, and also very temporary, as it will be my task later on to make a better sense out of it.

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Hobbes the Malthusian? Let us first check what Malthus says about overpopulation and war: "The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man that a premature death must, in some shape or other, visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, plague advance in terrific array, sweeping off thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world."

(Let us not forget that this was written two centuries after Hobbes. And now back to Hobbes.)

Within the confines of a single sentence, maintaining an even keel in his matter-of-fact tone, Hobbes gives his answer to the problem of future overpopulation of the world in a determined colonialist expansion, and when the latter is achieved to its full capacity, in a war to “victory or death.” Here is that amazing sentence, once again, from the 30^th Chapter of Leviathan:

“The multitude of poor and yet strong people still increasing (observe his almost parenthetical solution to the problem of poverty; no doubt here that Hobbes’s ideas are influenced by the British colonial expansion into the American continent, but the resolute character of his insistence that such transplantation be made a mandatory long-term policy, “are to be transplanted,” makes the difference!), they are to be transplanted into lands not sufficiently inhabited; where, nevertheless, they are not to exterminate those they find there; but constrain them to inhabit closer together, and not to range a great deal of ground to snatch what they find, but to court each little plot with art and labor, to give them their sustenance in due season. (Almost utopian, but still good advice, and now here comes the clincher:) And when all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provides for every man, by victory or death.”

Hobbes the Malthusian? So it looks, and so it feels, but judge it for yourself!