1) The person I think the had the most influence on Darwin's theory of evolution, in a positive way, was Thomas Malthus.
2) Thomas Malthus, an english parson, published an essay in 1797 called The Principle of Population. Darwin, along with Wallace, read this and began to form the hypothesis that animals and plants around the world also go through the same struggle with reproduction, as humans do. Darwin, realized after reading this essay that any species could easily multiple, but knowing how much food, shelter, and space there is in the world, that is why they don't do it. (Source: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14)
3) The points that influenced Darwin's theory were that resources are limited. Knowing this, Darwin built his theory of natural selection. Though the potential to reproduce possible, humans and animals don't continue to reproduce because they know the resources around them are limited, and that population is the only thing that they can control.
4) I do think that Darwin could have formed his theory about Natural Selection without the essay because after some amount of time he would began to realize/think why there are a certain amount of living organisms and not more. Though it would have taken longer to form the theory, I think that Darwin could have figured it out.
5) The reactions of the publication of Darwin's book, The Origin of Species, caused a mix reaction to the church. There were strong beliefs for both sides, but around the time of Darwin's death they were in his favor because of the evidence that other scientist found that late proved Darwin's theory to be true. (Source: http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darwin200/pages/index.php?page_id=e6)
I too chose Thomas Malthus as the person who influenced Darwin the most. I had pretty much the same argument for numbers 1 thru 4, but my number 5 was slightly different because I focused more on the influences on his book
ReplyDeleteWhile I thought Thomas Malthus was very influential in Darwin's discoveries I chose Alfred Russel Wallace. I chose Wallace because I believe the peer approval or support is what drove Darwin to ultimately publish his theory in his book. These individuals lived in a time when the Church was very dominant and anything commonly discouraged by the church could ultimately face ridicule.
ReplyDeleteHi Justin,
ReplyDeleteI can understand and respect your decision on choosing Malthus. He provided very important quantitative data about population which were vital in support of Darwin's theory of natural selection and species population change over time.
Justin, it is very interesting that you chose Malthus. He did help Darwin and his theory a lot. All of his research and evidence gave Darwin a great start to as how natural selection occurs and how species can choose their population rate depending on the environment. Malthus had much influence on Darwin and helped him a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like if it wasn't for Thomas Malthus, Darwin would have not made a theory. Malthus' research helped and inspired Darwin to come up with his own ideas. I agree that Darwin's book caused many controversies within the church. Good job on the post, it was interesting learn about how Thomas Malthus influenced Darwin.
ReplyDeleteGood source. I haven't seen that one before.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, good description of Malthus' work, with a couple of points:
Darwin took the work beyond the issue of limited resources and asked the question of "Who is surviving?" Was it a random level of survival or was there a predictable pattern to it? This led to the understanding that a factor was selecting those who survived, namely the environment, based upon the existing traits of the organisms. This is the origin of the concept of "natural selection".
You say: "...humans and animals don't continue to reproduce because they know the resources around them are limited, and that population is the only thing that they can control."
Words matter! Is this really a conscious decision? Do field mice choose to limit their litter numbers or sizes because they know that resources are limited? Or do they tend to have offspring and then the limited resources means that not all survive?
I suppose it is possible that Darwin would have developed his theory without Malthus, but this work was so key in helping him make connections that I seriously doubt it. Malthus is one of two scientists (Lyell is the other) that seem to be necessary for Darwin to complete his work.
The final question addresses the time before Darwin published, not after. Why did Darwin wait two decades to publish his work? What caused him to delay? What repercussions were possible as a result of publishing?