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Utopia: Johann Peter Süßmilch and the Divine Order

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Part of the book series: The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences ((EHES,volume 9))

Abstract

Johann Peter Süßmilch lived in the eighteenth century in Germany. He was a contemporary of well-known German scientists, philosopher Christian Wolff and cameralist Johann von Justi. Süßmilch served as Prussian army priest and provost in the parish Berlin-Cölln. He is a representative of German cameralism, which cautioned about turning away from religion to listen to reason, and was engaged as a statistician and demographer concerning with actual statistical data of the time. In this essay, Süßmilch’s Devine Order of population is shown as part of the intellectual and spiritual antagonism towards the rising importance of reason at the time. Finally, Süßmilch’s awarenesses are compared with Malthus’ later-published Principles of Population.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    20–21 Heilbronn Symposium. Backhaus, Jürgen (2009)

  2. 2.

    Saage (1992), pp. IX.

  3. 3.

    Süßmilch (1741), pp. 308.

  4. 4.

    Süßmilch (1741), p. 183.

  5. 5.

    Süßmilch (1741), pp. 285.

  6. 6.

    Süßmilch (1741), p. 74.

  7. 7.

    Malthus (1878).

  8. 8.

    Malthus (1878), pp. 6.

  9. 9.

    Malthus (1872); pp. 8.

References

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Correspondence to Gerhard Scheuerer .

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Scheuerer, G. (2011). Utopia: Johann Peter Süßmilch and the Divine Order. In: Backhaus, J. (eds) The State as Utopia. The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences, vol 9. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7500-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7500-3_14

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