Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that Malthus�s use of dubious calculations invited his readers to speculate about an inevitable and catastrophic war fought with highly destructive technology, and that his use of generalizations invited readers to speculate about the catastrophic results of overpopulation abstracted to the entire earth. By examining these rhetorical strategies, I will trace the implicit link between Malthus�s proposed �positive checks� on population growth and what became Malthusian exterministic thought.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: ...Godwin’s liberal utopia is antinomian through and through, attacking not only law but even promising as an interference with the freedom of private judgment... Malthus’s anti-utopia develops a bio-political economy that shares in Godwin’s project of utilitarian improvement, but that famously undermines the latter’s politics of possibility... What interests me most here is the theoretical matrix that develops out of this exchange.... Like Foucault, I want to call attention to the emergence of a concern with the biological nature of the governed as a kind of continuing stimulus for the project of liberal government. But...I highlight the centrality of a biopolitical account of character in this literature. It is in...“ethology” that the liberal art and science of government in nineteenth-century Britain finds one of its greatest themes for invention and consolidation. Ultimately, Godwin’s concern is the cultivation (“improvement”—an agricultural metaphor) of character. This biopolitical and tutelary strain runs through liberalism to the present day. There are alternatives, including alternatives within classical utilitarian liberalism...