Influence on Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution
Thomas Malthus had the most influence on Charles Darwin; Malthus was the first to venture into the thought of natural selection. When Charles Darwin discovered the stepping-stone to the idea of natural selection now known as Malthusianism, it made him think more about how different organisms could survive in any given environment. Although Malthus only thought natural selection was among the human race Darwin took it one step further and believed natural selection applied to any living organism.
The biggest impact I think Malthus made on the scientific community was putting Darwin onto natural selection. Most of Malthus' findings were based more on the economy and how the growing amount of people their were the less food there was. So I think him opening the door to Darwin's findings on natural selection was most definitely his largest impact.
- Resources are limited.
- Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts.
- Who gets better access to these limited resources?
These points speak all about exactly what Malthus was a publishing in his journals. They all talk about needing resources to survive and without resources its harder and pointless to reproduce. Also people in better situations who can provide the resources to be stable enough to reproduce.
Could Darwin have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence of Thomas Malthus? I'm sure he could. Darwin made the idea far larger than that of Malthus, Malthus just gave him a faster nudge in the right direction. Although I'm sure it wouldn't have taken him long on his own.
As for the Churches attitude about his findings they made him hide it from the public for a few years. He had only told a few people in his small circle. The church didn't want things out to make others question or stray from the words of God. The church almost always would shy away from rebellious thoughts and scientific beliefs.
First a caution: Malthus himself never touched on the idea of natural selection. He was focused on the concept of potential exponential growth in all natural populations, and how this would lead inevitably to a population outgrowing their resources, resulting in famine, disease and death. That isn't natural selection.
ReplyDeleteYou recover in the second paragraph by doing a great job of choosing the key points addressed by Malthus' work and by Darwin's interpretation of it. That last one, the one of "who get's better access to resources" is possibly the most important, as asking that question led Darwin to the idea that when organisms have different success in competition for limited resources, those who survive or don't survive isn't a random process. It is directed by natural processes.
I agree that Darwin could have done this without Malthus, but perhaps not as quickly.
Other than that initial point, very good post.
thank you.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Emily, you touched on a lot of fact about Malthus. This is a very informational post I find helpful to some of the mistakes I've made on my research of Thomas Malthus. Great Job!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Especially your explanation on darwin and the church.
ReplyDelete