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Surely the most influential use of the p-d before it was named
was that which Malthus sprang on Godwin. Here is a nice statement of the
issue
from Godwin's 1801 response to Malthus and other critics:
"It is true, the ill consequence of a numerous family will not come so
coarsely
home to each man's individual interest, as they do at present. It is true,
a man
in such a state of society might say, if my children cannot subsist at my
expense, let them subsist at the expense of my neighbour." (1801, pp.
61-62)
Of course Godwin resisted the implication arguing for moral development.
The nicest statement of the issue that I know comes in W. F. Lloyd 1837
Whately lecture:
"Now, the objection, drawn from the theory of population, against such
systems
of equality, is this. Marriage is a present good. The difficulties
attending the
maintenance of a family are future. But in a community of goods, where the
children are maintained at public tables, or where each family takes
according
to its necessaries out of the common stock, these difficulties are removed
from
the individual. They spread themselves, and overflow the whole surface of
society, and press equally on every part." (1837, p. 21)
David Levy
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