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Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Charles Darwin and Thomas Malthus
For our first assignment, we are discussing "Historical Influcenes." Here are my thoughts:
I believe the person who most influenced the development of
Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is Thomas Malthus. One could say
that the without the ideas presented in Malthus’ “Essay
on the Principle of Population,” Darwin’s theory would have never
come to exist.
Malthus was a 19th century English economist who
became concerned with humankind’s ability to “outgrow” their resources. In his “Essay on the Principle of Population,” Malthus
discussed animals’ ability to reproduce at exponential rates- rates that their
resources could not support. This inevitably led to lower chances of survival
for certain animals as they had to compete for their food. He posited that
people would soon face the same challenges. He noted that people are capable of
increasing their food production to support a growing population, but that the
rate of increase would always be considerably less than the increase in
population. He stated that dire consequences for this occurrence would include famine,
poor health, and war stemming from competition for resources and food. Those
who were successful in obtaining the food and resources needed for prosperous life
will go on to reproduce and thrive, those who are not successful, will starve
and die. This is essentially the ground work for Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Two key points that are the cornerstones of Darwin’s Theory
of Evolution are supported by the ideas of Thomas Malthus. Like Malthus, Darwin
believed that organisms have the potential to reproduce exponentially but are
ultimately limited by the availability of resources. Though Malthus was focused
primarily on human population, he states in his essay that if human population
was left unchecked by limited resources resulting in disease, hardship, famine
or self-constraint (birth control, marrying later in life), it would double
every 25 years (An Essay on the Principle of Population,
II.16).
These two ideas – that populations have the ability to grow
exponentially and that they are only limited by resources- are the building
blocks of the Darwin’s theory of evolution. Without the identification of what
is limiting populations, Darwin would not have been able to theorize about the overall
effects on a species; “who” successfully reproduced and why, a species’ ability
to adapt, or the inheritance of desirable traits. In fact, Darwin even credited
Thomas Malthus for the ideas presented in his essay.
From Charles Darwin’s Autobiography:
“In October 1838, that
is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read
for amusement Malthus on Population, and
being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere
goes on from long- continued observation of the habits of animals and plants,
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.gutenberg.org/files/2010/2010-h/2010-h.htm)
One final note on Malthus and Darwin that I found
interesting: Malthus was an English cleric, a member of the clergy. Although he
believed that resources were the inhibitors to human population growth, he sternly
believed that this was God’s will. I find it ironic that Darwin’s theory was
influenced so greatly by a non-secular scholar since Darwin’s work was heavily
scrutinized by the religious community. Darwin postponed many of his
publications as to not upset the church. In fact, the influence of the church
could have even caused Darwin to lose credit for his theory of natural
selection to Alfred Wallace. Ultimately, it was competition that led Darwin to
publish his ideas (survival of the fittest?).
http://www.econlib.org/library/Malthus/malPop1.html#Chapter
II
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html
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