Thomas Malthus' theories
on population growth were an influential factor in Darwin's theory of Natural
Selection. Malthus studied and understood factors that limited human population
growth. Thomas Malthus wrote about how more humans are born than can survive
due to certain limitations of food and space. His theory on the relationship of
population growth and the availability of food supply led Darwin to expand upon
this idea of population growth and relate it to all species as a whole. Darwin
expanded upon Thomas Malthus' theory and came to the conclusion that better
adapted species would survive and weaker species would give way to the better
adapted species. Darwin later theorized that the adapted species would pass on the
survivable traits to their off springs.
Darwin's theory of
Natural Selection could have been developed without the assistance from other
scientists. He could have come up with his theory without help from anyone,
just by his detailed work as a naturalist and his observations of other species
and unusual adaptations to their environment. For example his friend and
contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace came up with the same evolutionary theory
that Darwin had, although Wallace called it "struggle for existence"
and Darwin called it "Natural Selection," so in retrospect, Darwin
need not have read the theory of Thomas Malthus, Alfred Russel Wallace or his
other contemporaries. The threat of
ridicule by the church was a big impediment to Darwin as the church held
sway during his time and so he published his book on The Origin of the Species only when he had carefully studied and fully researched his theory and could not come to any other conclusions.
Im glad I came across your post, I didn't know much about Thomas Malthus and this definitely helped me come to a better understanding. Thomas Malthus seemed like a very clever guy for him to think this theory thoroughly. I believe in Thomas Malthus theory of population growth and think that he had a big influence over Charles Darwin.
ReplyDeleteHello Elsy,
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading your post. You made great points and it read well. Malthus impacted Darwin's studies in a positive way. My blog highlighted Wallace who also impacted Darwin in a positive way. Darwin and Wallace did not agree on all theories; however, Wallace's studies seemed to motivate Darwin out of competition in a way.
One key point that came to mind as I was reading these first few chapters was how several people had laid out the same theories at the same general time. That is something to expect with the technology of today; but during the industrial revaluation was a time where just travel was considered dangerous.
In general, good explanation of Malthus' work and how Darwin was able to take this information and apply it to non-humans populations. Malthus was primarily concerned with how this relationship between (over)reproduction and resources would affect humans. Darwin didn't just apply it to species (evolution works at the population level). He applied to it all organisms.
ReplyDeleteSo which of the guideline bullet points do you think applies best to Malthus' influence? I don't see that specified in the post.
While I hesitate giving any one individual so much influence over another's work as to say the work couldn't have been done without them, I think you are swinging too far the other way. All scientists build off of the scientists that came before them and corroborate and learn from their contemporaries. You mention that Wallace developed his theory on his own, but he also read Malthus and used that information to come up with his own theory of natural selection. So was Darwin's theory so independent from other conceptual works? I am actually willing to consider the possibility that Malthus played a very important role in Darwin's theory and Darwin has even referred to this as well in 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
I agree with your conclusion in the last section, though I'm not sure if "ridicule" was his real concern. Was he only worried about himself or did he also have concerns about how this would affect his family?
One other comment on sources: You can't use a search engine url as your source. This only tells us how you got to your source. It doesn't tell us the source itself. It needs to be the specific book, paper or website and it should open for your reader to the source itself.
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