Of the list of provided, I believe Thomas Malthus had the most (and most positive) influence on the development of Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. Darwin took interest in Malthus' idea regarding population vs struggle for resources, and then translated it to areas of science in the wild.
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) was an economist who wrote, "Essay on the Principle of Population." This argued, pointedly, that as the human population grew and resources such as food became more scarce, the weakest portions of the human race would begin to die off.
Thomas Malthus' work most directly affects the points of evolution regarding 1) access to resources and 2) traits adaptive to the changing environment. The idea was, once resources become scarce and people begin to starve and die off, the strongest and most fit will survive to pass on their traits. This positively influenced Charles Darwin's work in that he recognized the animal kingdom populations were forever limited by resources, thus creating constant competition. Because the weakest of any population lose the struggle to survive, it only leaves the "fittest" portions of a population to procreate, thus creating traits in a species adaptive to changing environments.
I think it is possible that Darwin would have reached his theory of natural selection without the introduction of Malthus' population vs resource ideas. Darwin had already gathered his own data on biological variation within a species, he just didn't quite have an explanation for his arguments. I believe that Darwin had a moment of insight or "aha!" when he read Thomas Malthus' essay in 1838 and this sparked the arrival of natural selection.
Even though Darwin had developed and written a summary of his natural selection theory, he hesitated to publish it. Part of this was because of the controversy this posed. His ideas countered religious convictions of the time and would have been met with a lot of resistance. He was not ready to be the center of an argument between science and religion, and so he waited more than two decades to finally publish his theory on natural selection.
resources:
Berkeley on Darwin
Thomas Malfus
Influences on Darwin
Religion vs Science, Darwin's Hesitation
Introduction to Physical Anthropology 2013-2014(text book)
Hi Tammi,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your opinions about Thomas Malthus, I believe he was a very influential figure to Darwin. I especially liked your explanation on how you believe Darwin could have reached his own conclusions on the theory of natural selection even without Malthus. The 'aha' moment you mentioned when Darwin read Malthus's findings seemed spot on to me, he did indeed have his own findings prior to reading about Malthus's research and it was just the answer he needed.
However, it already took a rather long time for Darwin to publish his "On the Origin of Species" and Alfred Wallace almost beat him to it with his own work. Maybe with the extra time it could have taken Darwin to find the conclusions he got from Malthus's work on his own, Wallace may have taken all the credit in the meantime, leaving Darwin's work as an afterthought. I feel like the name in evolutionary would be much different if that were to have happened.
Thank you Tammi this was very informative. I can see the similarities between Malthus and Darwin's theory. Darwin believed the strongest and most "Fit" species would survive. The idea of the strongest surviving to Darwin was so that those traits can be passed on to offspring. I agree with you that Darwin probably took in to consideration the theory that Malthus had. What I find interesting from Darwin's theory is that he states that the individuals who are resistant to disease have a favorable evolutionary trait. Personally I hardly get sick and my Father is the same way. I couldn't help but to think of these connections. Darwin's theory continues to be challenged. In a way I can see how Malthus and Darwin's theory applies to our Homo-Sapien species. Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteHI Tammi,
ReplyDeleteYou agree with you that Thomas Malthus was inspirational to Darwin's work but Darwin would have still reach his Theory.
Angela
You started off very well but wandered off the path a bit with this comment:
ReplyDelete"The idea was, once resources become scarce and people begin to starve and die off, the strongest and most fit will survive to pass on their traits. "
No, Malthus wasn't interested in who survived and what their traits might have been that led to their survival. He only saw the population as a whole being subjected to famine and disease when reproduction was not brought under control and competition for limited resources increased. It was Darwin who took this idea of competition and started asking "who survives?" That was the turning point for Darwin's work. He needed that key from Malthus to organize his mountain of natural evidence into a testable natural mechanism.
"I believe that Darwin had a moment of insight or "aha!" when he read Thomas Malthus' essay in 1838 and this sparked the arrival of natural selection."
I agree, and I would even go so far as to say that Darwin might well not have developed his theory without that "aha" moment. He seems to suggest it in one of his own writings:
"... it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by which to work".
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
Good final discussion. Was Darwin just worried about himself? Did he have any concerns about how publishing would affect others in his family or his friends?
Other than a couple of points, good first post.