Talk:Iron law

Talk

The term is derived from Goethe's "great, eternal iron laws" in his poem Das Göttliche, (On The Divine),^[1]^[2] from Ilmenau (1783) (» Nach ewigen, ehrnen, / Großen Gesetzen «; word for word "by eternal, iron, / great laws", lines 31–32, sixth stanza; for ehrnen, (iron/firm/unyielding) compare ehernen, ehern,^[3]) which was applied by Lassalle in economics.^[4] Malthus' principle was then retrospectively retitled an "iron law", and subsequent such laws have been named in imitation of these.

^ http://www.goethe-museum.com/register/de/dept_32.html
^ Goethe: “Das Göttliche / On the Divine” (bilingual edition), posted by matt on 2 May 2008
^ WordReference.com: ehernen
^ Critique of the Gotha Programme, Karl Marx, Chapter 2, footnote 1, (1875)

Added explanation

Moved the proposed text to the main article. -- PaulxSA (talk) 09:29, 8 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

[1] ttp://www.goethe-museum.com/register/de/dept_32.html

[2] Goethe: “Das Göttliche / On the Divine” (bilingual edition), posted by matt on 2 May 2008

[3] WordReference.com: ehernen

[4] Critique of the Gotha Programme, Karl Marx, Chapter 2, footnote 1, (1875)

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