The dismal science is a derogatory alternative name for economics devised by the Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle in the 19th century. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881 was a Scottish essayist satirist and historian whose work was highly influential during the Victorian era. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The term is an inversion of the phrase "gay science," meaning "life-enhancing knowledge. " This was a familiar expression at the time, and was later adopted as the title of a book by Nietzsche (see The Gay Science). Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist The Gay Science language|German] Die fröhliche Wissenschaft ("la gaya scienza" ] is a book written by Friedrich Nietzsche
It is often stated that Carlyle gave economics the nickname "dismal science" as a response to the late 18th century writings of The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, who grimly predicted that starvation would result as projected population growth exceeded the rate of increase in the food supply. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834 was an English political economist and demographer who expressed views Carlyle did indeed use the word 'dismal' in relation to Malthus' theory in his essay Chartism (1839):
"The controversies on Malthus and the 'Population Principle', 'Preventative Check' and so forth, with which the public ear has been deafened for a long while, are indeed sufficiently mournful. Year 1839 ( MDCCCXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Dreary, stolid, dismal, without hope for this world or the next, is all that of the preventative check and the denial of the preventative check. "
However the full phrase "dismal science" first occurs in Carlyle's 1849 tract entitled Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, in which he was arguing for the reintroduction of slavery as a means to regulate the labor market in the West Indies:
"Not a 'gay science,' I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science"
Developing a deliberately paradoxical position, Carlyle argued that slavery was actually morally superior to the market forces of supply and demand promoted by economists, since, in his view, the freeing up of the labor market by the liberation of slaves had actually led to a moral and economic decline in the lives of the former slaves themselves. Year 1849 ( MDCCCXLIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Supply and demand is an Economic model describing effects on price and quantity in a Market.
Carlyle's view was attacked by John Stuart Mill and other liberal economists. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Liberalism is a broad array of related ideas and theories of Government that consider individual Liberty to be the most important political goal
The teachings of Malthus eventually became known under the umbrella phrase "Malthus' Dismal Theorem". A Malthusian catastrophe (or Malthusian check, crisis, dilemma, disaster, trap, controls, or limit) is a return His predictions were forestalled by unanticipated dramatic improvements in the efficiency of food production in the 20th century; yet the bleak end he proposed remains as a disputed future possibility. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Population control has been proposed as the most likely means to prevent the fulfillment of his predictions, assuming human innovation fails to keep up with population growth. Population control is the practice of limiting population increase usually by reducing the Birth rate.
See also
- An Essay on the Principle of Population
- Malthusian growth model - the math behind the theory
- Malthusianism - political (and economic) fall-out from the theory
External links
- The Secret History of the Dismal Science, by David M. The book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798 through J The Malthusian growth model, sometimes called the simple exponential growth model is essentially Exponential growth based on a constant rate of Compound interest Malthusianism refers to the political/economic thought of Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus whose ideas were first developed during the Industrial revolution. Levy and Sandra J. Peart.
- The Origin of the Term "Dismal Science" to Describe Economics, by Robert Dixon
- Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question , by Thomas Carlyle
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