GODWIN, Recherches sur la population, 1821

First french edition.

William Godwin (1756-1836) is a British philosopher, precursor of anarchism and inspiration for the utilitarian movement.
This book is part of the controversy between Godwin and Malthus about the principle of population. For Malthus, the mathematical growth of the human population occurs at a rate greater than that of access to resources.
For Godwin, the "improvement of Man" (in fact technical progress) will make it possible to compensate for population growth, he says:
"if the earth, in all its habitable parts, could be made as fertile as China, it would be enough to feed a population of nine thousand million people" (volume II, p.212).

A debate that is still current.