THE CLASSICAL FOUNDATIONS OF POPULATION THOUGHT: FROM PLATO TO QUESNAY

Book Details:

• ISBN: 9789402422894

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

• Binding: Hardback

• Number of Pages: 186

• Publication Year: 2025

About the Book
This book explores the often-overlooked history of the construction of the concept of population, focusing on the intellectual history behind demographic theories and doctrines. While the history of demography as a social science has been extensively studied, the evolution of population thought has been systematically neglected. The great intellectual figures of the past did not necessarily produce demographic theories in the modern sense, but their ideas on population shaped much of demographic thinking today.

The book opens with an epistemological and methodological discussion, illustrating how ideas about population are not part of a linear progression of knowledge but are deeply influenced by the social, economic, political, and intellectual contexts of their time. It then examines the thoughts on population of key figures such as Plato, Bodin, the French mercantilists, Quesnay, and the physiocrats, all of whom contributed to the intellectual framework surrounding population ideas. The final chapter delves into the implicit philosophical, economic, and political dimensions of population theory, setting the stage for the development of demography as we know it.

Contents

• Interpreting Ideas on Population

• History and Utopia

• There Are No Riches Other Than Men

• The Prince and His Population

• The Political Failure of an Economic Theory

• Towards Demography

About the Author / Editor
Born in 1945, [Author Name] is a Professor of Demography at Université Paris Descartes, where he holds the chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences and leads the Centre Population et Développement (CEPED). He has a robust academic background, with degrees in Sociology and Economics from the Sorbonne, a D.Phil. from Oxford, and a Doctorat es-Lettres from Paris.

An influential figure in the field, he has authored 17 books and over 60 peer-reviewed articles on international migrations, population theories, and family and fertility studies. He is a founding member of the Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales and serves as the chief editor of Populations (L'Harmattan) and Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Change (Springer). Additionally, he has consulted for major international organizations like UNFPA, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, and the World Bank, with field experience in various African, Caribbean, and South-East Asian countries.