“Population, Sustainability, and Malthus: Crash Course World History”, John Green examines one of the theories about the downfall of humanity, proposed by Thomas Malthus. Malthus wrote an essay on the Principles of Population to explain why at the time, population growth was steadily slow. John Green goes ahead to talk about how Malthus compared the poor to rabbits. Expressing that the same powers that constrained the population of rabbits would do likewise to poor people. Forces such as: predators, weather, epidemics and starvation.
Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population offers a grim hypothesis regarding the world’s future based on our continuously increasing population growth, but a look around at the current state of humanity raises questions about the validity of these claims. The main principle underlying Malthus’s argument is that there simply is not enough, and there never has been enough, resources on this earth to sustain the indefinitely increasing world population, but there are still naysayers who reject this particular line of thinking. Over the past few years, major technological improvements have pushed the hypothetical doomsday scenario further and further away, leading many to wonder when and if it will ever really arrive, or, in contrast,
There were many philosophers in the 17th and 18th century that influenced and inspired the founders of our country. For instance, John Locke believed that life, liberty, and property should be our natural rights as humans and if the government could not secure these rights then the people could get rid of them. That idea impacted Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. This was the perfect time to develop different theories and contradictions because this was right around the time of the printing press and protestant reformation where people started to question the catholic church. Other philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau impacted founders like George Washington and James Madison who have positively affected this country in many different ways.
Yet, none of these facts can be seen as rendering Marx irrelevant or as diminishing the power and vitality of his theory and vision because of the following reasons: First, Marx broke new ground in human thought by making a very fundamental contribution. By demonstrating that human historical development can be understood in a scientific manner by looking at the way human societies produced and reproduced themselves, he elevated history into a Science, rather than mere descriptive narration of palace intrigues, wars, dynastic rulers and their numerous exploits. He placed human beings and their conscious, purposive activity –human labor –at the centre of his analysis of human history. He was able to show that the uniqueness of the human species lay in their conscious productive activity whereby they transformed Nature to produce their means of existence. In the process, human beings also changed and evolved, acquiring new knowledge and new skills all the time, and learning more and more about how nature works and harnessing this knowledge to improve the productive powers of society.
Because Columbus had limited amounts of ships he could not take as many natives as he would have preferred and this could be an indication to why he wrote his letter the way he wrote it. Ultimately having the support of the crown worked in his favor to exploit the land and its people. Columbus’ discovery of this new land led to the Columbian Exchange where animals, plants, and humans were “products” of the New World and transported to the Old World. Another product he came across was gold something he seems to leave out of this document. The way Columbus took advantage of the native people was brutal not only by enslaving them but by colonialism which essentially is a takeover.
Kingsley Davis, who is said to have pioneered the study of historical urban demography wrote his “The Urbanization of the Human population” in 1965. In his essay, he states that the history of the world is in fact the history of urbanization and then begins with description of how tiny European settlements grew slowly through the Middle Ages and the early modern period. According to him, urbanization occurred mainly because of rural-urban migration and not the other factors that people believe. He discusses how the production levels of this time period, due to the feudal system, used to favor an agrarian culture and then how the process of urbanization intensified during the 1900s, especially in Great Britain. He then clarifies the difference between urbanization, which he describes as the process of a society becoming more urban-focused, and the growth of cities i.e.
It might be enough to write several books about. I was surprised by the problems I had to find easily accessible overviews of the influence of Descartes on the modern World. The reason, I came to assume, is that one can not just simply state the areas in which Rene Descartes was influential, since our whole Modern World is influenced by his thinking. Mathematics, Physics, Religion, Philosophy, actually the whole sector of Science and even the averages man's Worldview. And even if we have thinkers who are not as much Cartesian, like Nietzsche or Marx, we still have to assume that some of their basic starting points came out of a scientific Worldview created by the Method of Doubt of Descartes.
1. As the people became more curious about the world around them, some brilliant people began o dig for answers and eventually found them. The various people involved established and brought forward new discoveries. The newly found scientific discoveries impacted many people. The accomplishments of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton motivated the social contrast theorists to investigate about the laws of human nature.
Henry David Thoreau was a renowned author and philosopher of the 1800’s who believed that people who have materialistic values reveal a lack of spiritual self-reliance. In today’s world, people depend on mostly technology and other materialistic things. Technology is how many people communicate, secure their finances, and even work. Times have evolved and Thoreau’s belief is no longer one that can be supported one hundred percent. However, Thoreau’s idea is partially appropriate when describing those who depend upon technology for almost everything.
Thomas More had an abundance of revolutionary ideas for his time, many of which he penned down in his famous work Utopia. More’s greatest focus in this short book is placed on exploring the possibilities and benefits of a new kind of government. His views on such things as freedom, community, and the innate nature of man were all considered when creating what More views as the epitome of a successful government. It is baffling to realize that, using these same principles of freedom, community, and the innate nature of man, another author could come to a conclusion in direct opposition with More’s outcome. Nevertheless, this is exactly what occurred when Thomas Paine, a political writer during the American Revolution, examined what his utopian society would look like.