恩格斯对马尔萨斯人口理论的批判及其时代启示

Engels'Criticism of Malthusian Population Theory and Its Enlightenment

马尔萨斯人口理论以人口增长必将快于生活资料增长为理论依据,试图说明社会中总会存在部分过剩人口,并宣扬无产阶级的贫困与过剩都由人口原理所决定,以此为资本主义制度作辩护。为捍卫无产阶级的生存和发展权,恩格斯从人口增长、生活资料、社会救济和立法三个角度对人口理论展开批判,指明了资本主义制度是无产阶级贫困和人口过剩的根源,打破了马尔萨斯人口绝对过剩的神话。马尔萨斯将人口问题简化为人口和生活资料比例失衡问题,而恩格斯对人口理论的批判却启示我们:现实的人口问题是人口与资源危机、人口与需要满足和人口与分配不均等众多问题的复杂综合。

Malthusian population theory,based on the theory that population growth will be faster than the growth of the means of living,tries to explain that there will always be a part of the surplus population in society,and advocates that the poverty and surplus of the proletariat are determined by the population principle,thus defending the capitalist system.In order to defend the proletariat's right to survival and development,Engels criticized the population theory from the three perspectives of population growth,means of living,social relief and legislation,pointed out that the capitalist system was the root of proletarian poverty and overpopulation,and broke the myth that the Malthusian population was absolutely opposite to overpopulation.Malthus simplified the population problem as the imbalance of the proportion of population and means of living,while Engels'criticism of the population theory reveals that the real population problem is a complex synthesis of many problems,such as the crisis of population and resources,the satisfaction of population and needs,and the inequality of population and distribution.