- With the help of Thomas Malthus
- The person that I feel that had the most influence on Charles Darwin was Thomas Malthus. Thomas Malthus was a positive influence on Darwin. Malthus' essay, "On the Principle of Population", inspired both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, but Thomas Malthus was not interested in species change. Instead, he pointed out that population in nature is determined by the amount of resources there are available. There is always constant competition for resources which affect the population.
- Thomas Malthus observed that in nature, that plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive and that man too, is capable of over producing if left unchecked. He then realized that producing more offspring then can survive establishes a competitive environment among the siblings and the variation they may produce might have a slightly greater chance of survival. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
- Darwin built upon the ideas of Thomas Malthus. Charles Darwin and Thomas Malthus both reached the conclusion of the basic mechanics of the evolutionary process. Thomas Malthus suggested for a lower number of family members to combat the natural resources from disappearing. Charles Darwin and Thomas Malthus both spread their ideas through nature and people.
- Charles Darwin had some of his theory of evolution, but the missing pieces were filled in by Thomas Malthus. I don't think Charles Darwin could have done it by himself. After he read the "Essay on the Principle of Population", he was more clear about his idea of natural selection.
- Before Darwin was going to publish "On the origins of Species", Wallace sent Darwin a paper with the similar idea that he described evolution as a process driven by competition and natural selection. The church had a negative attitude towards his book. The church thought that if evolution is true, there is no God and some even thought that he was trying to turn people away from God.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
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Hi :) This is Melanie.
ReplyDeleteI love the book that Darwin's published "On the Origins of Species" . That book had many ideas and theory's that were very constructive therefore he had to have some help from his contemporaries. I love Anthropology it is very exciting.
Hi Zach,
ReplyDeleteI picked Malthus also as having the greatest influence on Charles Darwin. It might have been possible that Darwin later thought up the theory of natural selection all on his own, but it would have been later in his life. That is purely speculation however, that is why I said without Malthus that Darwin would have never came up with his theory of Natural Selection. Your right about the church having a negative attitude about Darwin's book, but there were individuals in the church that were open to learning what Darwin had to say, without it destroying their religious values.
--Cody Bever
I agree that Darwin built upon the ideas of Malthus. They found common ground through nature and people. I think Darwin could have done it without Malthus. However his contribution helped the pieces fit together.-Kristin Randall
ReplyDeleteGood explanation of Malthus' work and you do a great job of demonstrating the connection between Malthus' recognition of the environment's impact on population size and Darwin's work.
ReplyDeleteThat said, which bullet point from the guidelines best represents Malthus' influence on Darwin's work? That was missing from the third section, though am confident you understand the material here.
All scientists build upon the work of those who came before the, but I rarely grant any particular scientist the significance of being "indispensible" to any other's ideas. Malthus is a rare exception, based upon the quote by Darwin in the source you linked for this post.
Darwin was very careful about releasing information before publishing, so the church didn't know about his work until after he published (as far as I know). So more generally, consider the church's response to ideas that contradicted their teachings historically. How would this history impact Darwin's decision to publish? What concerns might Darwin have had regarding the possible repercussions experienced by his family?
In general, other than the few points raised, good post.
Zach,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your decision of the most influential person to Darwin. It seems that Darwin was forming his ideas regarding evolution of species but still did not know how to approach it until Thomas Malthus' writings set off a "light bulb" in Darwin's mind. It is amazing how the work of an individual in an unrelated field, like economics, lead to the development of a theory explaining the growth of all species. Good thing Darwin decided to read on Population!