- Thomas Malthus had arguably the most influence on Darwin's theory of natural selection.
- His work An Essay on the Principle of Population is accepted as an inspiration to both Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, who independently came to the same conclusions. This included his "observation that in nature plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive..." (UCMP Berkeley) Malthus concluded that, while human populations grow and resources do not, population sizes are kept in check. Darwin's work sought to further explain the mechanism by which this occurs.
- "What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?" This is exactly the question that Malthus asked and answered, but did not fully explain or extend to non-human organisms. Wallace and Darwin later independently expanded these concepts to all living things, elaborated that competition plays an important role, and that this competition "is the ultimate key to understanding natural selection." (32)
- Darwin thus built his own theory of natural selection on Malthus's observations on population limits. It seems unlikely that Darwin could not have otherwise come to the conclusions he did. After all, Malthus raised an important question about changes in life and populations. It was accepted already that life changed, but it wasn't until these scientists that a greater understanding was achieved. Darwin and Wallace, it could be said, developed the sequel to Malthus's Population.
- The Church was extremely influential during Darwin's time. Enlightenment had begun to loosen its grip, but it remained important. Many began to fear that, were evolutionary ideas to be widely accepted, "the Church would crash, the moral fabric of society would be torn apart, and civilized man would return to savagery." (Desmond an Moore, 34) In fact, Darwin was quite wary of the reaction his work my elicit. It was Wallace who first published a paper describing the descent of species from other species through the influence of environmental factors. Wallace later sent Darwin a paper describing evolution via competition and natural selection, almost exactly what he had developed himself. Realizing that Wallace might be the one to down in history, Darwin decided to publish. In some ways, his later publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin caused the uproar he had feared. However, the fear that civilization would come crumbling down was not only disproven, but had, in the long-term, the opposite effect.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Historical Influences on Darwin
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Hi Benjamin. Thomas Malthus works were extremely influential to Charles Darwin for numerous reasons. The Berkeley source you utilized has clear and concise points as to how and why this philosopher influenced Darwin. It is agreeable that many of Darwin's ideas were built off of Malthus' theories. I also like that you mentioned Enlightenment and how this delayed Darwin's publication of his works.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen, thanks for your feedback. I think the context of enlightenment is crucial in understanding how and why natural selection was formulated into a theory in the first place. It was this freedom of intellectual endeavor that really enabled such radical ideas to exist, let alone flourish.
Delete"Malthus concluded that, while human populations grow and resources do not, population sizes are kept in check."
ReplyDeleteThat's not quite accurate. Populations have the potential to grow *exponentially*, while resources can only increase *arithmetically*, meaning resource growth is slower and that produces the competition for resources. Additionally, this describes NATURAL populations, not human. Malthus noted that, for some reason, human populations were lacking in this natural limiting factor the prevented overpopulation, hence the need to famine, war and disease to correct the population size.
"What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?"
No, this is the question Darwin asked after reading Malthus' work. Malthus' points are his two mathematical principles, i.e., "All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially" and "Resources are limited.".
Good conclusion in your next section and good reasoning. 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. As you explain in the second section, Malthus' work was the logical foundation for Darwin's theory. At the time Darwin read Malthus' essay, Darwin had collected a mountain of specimens and data, but couldn't figure out how to put it all together into a cohesive theory. Malthus concept of resource competition was key. 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
Good detail in your last paragraph, but you kind of head off on an interesting tangent on Darwin and Wallace and wander away from the key question of how the church's influence caused Darwin to delay publishing. Darwin delayed publishing for more than 20 years so it is worthwhile to try to understand the reason for this extensive delay. What were Darwin's concerns? 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.
Last point: Wallace didn't sent Darwin a "paper" which means it would have been published already, which it wasn't. Wallace sent him a manuscript of an idea. Darwin ended writing the paper presenting the idea of natural selection and presenting it to the scientific community as a joint paper, with his name and Wallace's receiving credit.
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ReplyDeleteHello Benjamin!
ReplyDeleteI definietely agree with you on the fact that Thomas Malthus had a great influence on the theory of natural selection. Malthus' theory challenged and raised concerns to the extent of which natural selection can occur. His idea of a population exceeding production limit truly had an impact of Darwin's proposal. In my opinion, without Malthus, natural selection may not have been very known today.
Nice response!