Comparing Adam Smith's The Wealth Of Nations And Thomas Malthus

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principles of Population differ drastically in tone and message. Smith’s Wealth of Nations has an analytical tone and a message of economic theory developed deductively through observation of the markets around him. Malthus’ Essay adopts a harsher and more skeptic tone towards future economic development and promotes a message of limited growth for the future because of finite resources, disease, and war, among other factors. Malthus reaches his conclusion through inductive reasoning, reaching a conclusion, which he then supports through facts. The deductive and inductive reasoning led Smith and Malthus to their opposing tones and messages. Throughout Wealth of Nations, Smith describes the actions of a market that is guided by “invisible hand.” An analytical and detached observation of the natural market, leads Smith to an optimistic view of population and the market. Smith avoids any preconceived notions upon entering his endeavor and attempts to maintain an unbiased view of the market. In Book I Chapter 7, Smith explains the rules of the market through supply and demand with deductive reasoning and the impartial tone that Malthus is unable to use in his work. An example of Smith’s more optimist outlook can be found in Book I Chapter 1, when he says, “It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal …show more content…
It implies that he believes humanity could maintain a healthy population if they used moral restraint and they would therefore not have to face the positive checks he describes. The tone of Malthus’ Essay has a bleaker outlook of the population and its shared wealth whereas Smith’s Wealth of Nations is optimistic that humanity can increase its opulence, even with population