An Essay on the Principle of Population
E7128
An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
All labels observed (6)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T81013 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on the Principle of Population Context triple: [Thomas Malthus, notableWork, An Essay on the Principle of Population]
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A.
The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations is Adam Smith’s foundational 1776 treatise on economics that laid the groundwork for classical free-market theory and modern economic thought.
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B.
Malthusian catastrophe
A Malthusian catastrophe is a theoretical scenario in which unchecked population growth outstrips food production, leading to widespread famine, disease, and social collapse.
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C.
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus was an English economist and demographer best known for his theory that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine and disease.
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D.
The Condition of the Working Class in England
The Condition of the Working Class in England is an 1845 socio-economic study by Friedrich Engels that exposes the harsh living and labor conditions of the industrial proletariat in 19th-century England.
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E.
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is Charles Darwin’s 1871 book that applies evolutionary theory to human origins and develops his influential theory of sexual selection.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on the Principle of Population Target entity description: An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
-
A.
The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations is Adam Smith’s foundational 1776 treatise on economics that laid the groundwork for classical free-market theory and modern economic thought.
-
B.
Malthusian catastrophe
A Malthusian catastrophe is a theoretical scenario in which unchecked population growth outstrips food production, leading to widespread famine, disease, and social collapse.
-
C.
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus was an English economist and demographer best known for his theory that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine and disease.
-
D.
The Condition of the Working Class in England
The Condition of the Working Class in England is an 1845 socio-economic study by Friedrich Engels that exposes the harsh living and labor conditions of the industrial proletariat in 19th-century England.
-
E.
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is Charles Darwin’s 1871 book that applies evolutionary theory to human origins and develops his influential theory of sexual selection.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
treatise ⓘ work of demography ⓘ work of political economy ⓘ |
| argument | population growth is limited by checks such as famine, disease, and war ⓘ |
| author |
Thomas Malthus
ⓘ
surface form:
Thomas Robert Malthus
|
| centralThesis |
population tends to increase faster than the means of subsistence
ⓘ
unchecked population growth is exponential while food production grows at best arithmetically ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes |
Marquis de Condorcet
ⓘ
William Godwin ⓘ |
| describes |
positive checks on population such as disease
ⓘ
positive checks on population such as famine ⓘ positive checks on population such as war ⓘ |
| field |
demography
ⓘ
economics ⓘ |
| firstEditionPublisher | J. Johnson ⓘ |
| followedBy |
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2nd edition (1803, greatly expanded)
|
| fullTitle |
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers
|
| genre | non-fiction ⓘ |
| hasImpactOn |
debates on overpopulation
ⓘ
environmental thought ⓘ social policy debates ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
Industrial Revolution
ⓘ
late 18th century Britain ⓘ |
| influenced |
Alfred Russel Wallace
ⓘ
Charles Darwin ⓘ classical economics ⓘ demographic studies ⓘ evolutionary theory ⓘ |
| introducesConcept | Malthusian theory of population ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
Malthusian catastrophe
ⓘ
surface form:
Malthusian trap
checks on population ⓘ geometric versus arithmetic growth ⓘ subsistence level of wages ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 18th century ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being one of the foundational texts of population economics
ⓘ
influencing the development of the concept of natural selection ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication |
London, England
ⓘ
surface form:
London
|
| proposes | preventive checks on population such as moral restraint ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1798 ⓘ |
| shortTitle |
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Essay on the Principle of Population
|
| subject |
demography
ⓘ
food supply ⓘ political economy ⓘ population theory ⓘ scarcity ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: An Essay on the Principle of Population Description of subject: An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
Referenced by (14)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent
→
relatedTo
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population
→
fullTitle
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers
An Essay on the Principle of Population
→
shortTitle
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population
→
followedBy
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2nd edition (1803, greatly expanded)
subject surface form:
Thomas Malthus
this entity surface form:
Essay on the Population of England
subject surface form:
Thomas Robert Malthus
subject surface form:
The Population Bomb
this entity surface form:
Malthusian theory of population
Observations on Reversionary Payments
→
relatedWorkByAuthor
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Essay on the Population of England
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population
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inspiredBy
→
An Essay on the Principle of Population
ⓘ