Historical Influences on Darwin
The person that had the biggest impact on Darwin’s development of his theory of natural selection was Thomas Malthus. Malthus’s work was the last push that Darwin needed to concoct his theory on evolution.
Even though Thomas Malthus was an economist, his most famous work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, would have significant and far reaching effects outside his field. The main point of his that would end up influencing both Darwin and Wallace were that populations grew faster than their food supply which created a constant struggle for existence. He also noted that plants and animals create more offspring than can survive, which led to overpopulation.
These observations that Malthus made would become the answer to Darwin’s question “What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?”. Darwin built upon the ideas of Malthus to come to his conclusion of natural selection.Food can be thought of as just another resource. Scarcity in resources inevitably leads to competition among individuals fighting for the same resource. Since there are not enough resources to go around for the current population, only those individuals suited to best gather that resource would live on and pass their traits onto the next generation.
I do not believe that Darwin could have come up with his theory of natural selection without Thomas Malthus' work, An Essay on the Principle of Population. The reason for this is that Darwin did not realize why an increase in the amount of offspring leads to an increase in biological diversity within a species. Without Malthus’ work it is highly unlikely that Darwin comes to the conclusion that more offspring leads to more diversity, which in turn leads to more adaptability within a species. Unless Darwin had some crazy ah-ha moment, we would not have his theory today.
The attitude of the church was definitely an influence in why Darwin waited so long to publish his theory on evolution. In the past, anyone who questioned the fixity of species were considered to be challenging God, which is heresy, and burned to death. Darwin’s theory went against the literal interpretation of the bible which most definitely would have upset the church.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
"The main point of his that would end up influencing both Darwin and Wallace were that populations grew faster than their food supply which created a constant struggle for existence. "
ReplyDeleteThis is precisely correct, but can we expand upon this? It would help you make direct connections between Malthus' work and Darwin's (and Wallace's). There is no word limit on these papers!
For example: Malthus was an economist who was also very concerned about the problems related to overpopulation. He understood that populations had the potential of growing exponentially, which resources tended to grow at a slower, arithmetic rate. He noticed that natural populations of animals never seemed to overpopulate their available resources. It was as if some natural force was limiting their population size. He then compared natural populations to human populations and recognized that humans seemed to be lacking this natural force (whatever it was) and as a result, humans seemed to outgrow their available resources. Malthus argued that unless humans self-regulated their reproduction (he was a huge proponent of birth control), other processes, such as famine, disease and war, would be the natural result, forcing us to cut our populations via mass death.
"These observations that Malthus made would become the answer to Darwin’s question “What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?”."
Yes, but that wasn't the question here. What bullet points can you directly attribute to *Malthus*, not to Darwin as a result of reading Malthus' work. There are two that are directly based off of the Malthusian principles: One is "All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially" which is Malthus' first principle of exponential population growth. The other is "Resources are limited", which is the implications of the second Malthusian principle of arithmetic growth of available resources. It was this conflict between population growth and resource growth that produced the issue of competition for available resources, the limiting factor on survival so key to natural selection.
I agree with your conclusion in the next section (and so would Darwin). I usually don't like to grant any one scientist so much credit as to be indispensable to the work of another, but in the case of Malthus (and Lyell) I'm willing to do so. Even Darwin himself seems to indicate just how important Malthus was to his work in his 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".
Charles Darwin, from his autobiography. (1876)
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
"Darwin’s theory went against the literal interpretation of the bible which most definitely would have upset the church."
Agreed, but can you expand upon the consequences of "upsetting" the church? What were Darwin's concerns? How might he have been negatively impacted, both personally and professionally as a result? And was he only worried about himself or was he also worried about how his family might be impacted by publishing? Remember that his wife was very devout. How might she have been impacted if the church responded negatively to Darwin? Remember that scientists don't work in a vacuum. They can be influenced not just by academics but also by social, cultural and personal issues.
Good basics here. Just expand. Try to teach your reader something.