Was Thomas Malthus a social-Darwinist?

Malthus died long before Darwin published his theories, so I would say no.

No, he explained the pressure of population, but he did not promote it as a means. In fact, he promoted actions to improve societies welfare in the long term, such as promoting the Corn Laws.

A true social Darwinist would not have any laws to promote the economy, but rather would have no laws to help anyone.

Ditto to @zenvelo As @crisw notes, he couldn’t have known to call himself a social Darwinist even if he had embraced that philosophy, but his conclusions drawn from mathematics led him to conclude we should undertake actions which would be anathema to most social Darwinists.

A one-word description of Malthus would probably be Malthusian, which has come to mean pessimistic doomsayer.

@bolwerk I didn’t have that meaning attached to is. To me, it means something relating to the theory he advanced of geometric progression. That’s what Merriam-Webster says it means. It also calls up thoughts in Victorian England that letting the poor starve or confining them to Workhouses was a necessary solution to save higher order civilization, as feeding the poor would only encourage them to multiply and outstrip supply/

@ETpro: I was being kind of ironic, but you touched on why. The context I usually see it used in concerns using up our resources faster than we can find new ones.

@bolwerk I take your meaning there.