I would argue that Thomas Malthus had the most influence over Darwin’s development of his theory of natural selection. Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population pointed out that the increase in human population was growing despite not having sufficient resources available to support growth. This concept inspired Darwin and he, along with Wallace, extended the concept to include all organisms which set up the basis of Darwin’s future theory of natural selection, the competition for resources. The traits that allowed certain species to survive and thrive in an environment of limited resources would be passed on to future generations, whereas the less advantageous traits in a species that limited certain organism's ability to survive, ultimately ending in its demise, would hence naturally eradicate that trait from future generations. Thomas Malthus’ idea of competition for resources provided the necessary groundwork for the theory of natural selection. “Early in his research, Darwin had realized that natural selection was the key to evolution. With the help of Mathus’ ideas, he saw how selection in nature could be explained. In the struggle for existence, those individuals with favourable variations would survive and reproduce, but those with unfavourable variations would not (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan, Ciochon, & Bartelink, 2018, p. 39)".
Thomas Malthus' work contributed to the scientific community in the way that it pointed out the seemingly impossible survival of humans, urging economists to study the factors involved in human population growth in order to understand how humans could continue to thrive when the food supply most certainly couldn't keep up. He also went on to later discuss the necessity for people to balance saving money with consumption to keep the economy moving.
The first point on how evolution works that Thomas Malthus' work directly affected is; What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential? Thomas Malthus' work directly explained that limited resources keeps reproduction in check. If there are limited resources, then an organism cannot reproduce at their full potential. The second point that Malthus' work directly affected is; Resources are limited. Though Malthus was referring to human beings, he made it clear that resources are limited, especially food, and he showed that food production was moving at a slower rate than population growth. The third and last point of how evolution works directly affected by Malthus' work falls in line with the first and second points; Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts. Malthus was clear that more food allows for a larger human population.
I believe that Darwin would have eventually developed his theory on natural selection even without the influence of Malthus' work. After reading the works of Lamarck and observing natural selection himself on his trip around the world, Darwin was well on his way to publishing his theory. I think that it would have taken longer, but that Darwin would have come to the necessary conclusion of the competition for resources to survive even without Malthus' work. However, I still maintain that Malthus was the most influential in Darwin's development of the theory because it was Malthus that inspired him in the first place with his Essay on the Principle of Population, and his work that provided the fundamental reason for the process of natural selection.
The church played a prominent roll in Darwin holding off on publishing his theory. Any ideas that contradicted the churches prerogative of the fixity of species were considered heresy and the consequences to Darwin's family's social life could have been devastating. Darwin's wife, Emma, had very strong religious convictions and she felt that Darwin's ideas contradicted her beliefs. "[Darwin] also had other reasons for not publishing what he knew would be a highly controversial work. His wife, Emma, saw his ideas as running counter to her strong religious convictions (Keynes, 2002). Also, as a member of the established order, he knew that many of his friends and associates were concerned with threats to the status quo, and evolutionary theory was viewed as a very serious threat indeed (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan, Ciochon, & Bartelink, 2018, p. 38)." In short, the attitude of the church kept Darwin from publishing his theory as soon as he could have.
Citations:
Jurmain, R., Kilgore, L., Trevathan, W., Ciochon, R. L., & Bartelink, E. J. (2018).
Introduction to physical anthropology (15th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
1766-1834. (n.d.). Thomas Robert Malthus. Retrieved February 13, 2020, from
https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html
Suggestion: Please treat these posts as you would papers, complete with paragraphs for each topic/prompt. When everything is lumped all together like this, it is very difficult for me to parse out your responses to each prompt. It is to your benefit to make sure your responses are clearly demarcated.
ReplyDelete"pointed out that the increase in human population was dependent on having sufficient resources available to support growth."
Actually, the problem in human populations was just the opposite, that humans tended to grow beyond their available resources, leading to famine.
I agree that competition for resources was central to Darwin's mechanism of natural selection, but that wasn't exemplified in human populations. It occurs in natural, non-human populations.
The rest of your section here explains the background of Malthus' work well.
Re: Bullet points (next prompt)
"What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?"
The two points that arise *directly* from Malthus are (1) the potential for exponential population growth and (2) that resources are limited because of their slower, arithmetic growth rates. These two together created the force of competition for resources, the driving force behind Darwin's mechanism for natural selection. You raise the point on "limited resources" but miss the other. The other two points you raise are not from Malthus, but are from *Darwin*, questions he asked after reading Malthus' paper.
"I think that it would have taken longer, but that Darwin would have come to the necessary conclusion of the competition for resources to survive even without Malthus' work. "
I challenge that, actually. 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... and who are we to argue with Darwin?:
"... 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
"...the perpetrator could be charged with trial by fire."
Ooo... no, not by Darwin's time. That doesn't mean Darwin and his family couldn't be impacted negatively, either socially or professionally.
Otherwise, good discussion here. Well done pointing out how scientists don't do their work in a scientific bubble. They are impacted by various social, familial, political and professional factors.
The only question here... How long did Darwin take before he published his work?
I'm going to go ahead and make those corrections. Reading the text I was under the impression that trial by fire was still a legitimate threat, but I went back and looked into it and realized I was way off on the timeline there. As for my stance on whether Darwin would have finalized his theory of natural selection without the influence of Malthus, I am now not so confident. You are right, Darwin himself commented on how important Malthus' work was to him. Darwin had everything but the "why" and Malthus' work brought him to the finish line. Also, to answer your final question, it took Darwin 20 years to publish. Thank you for the thorough read through. You got me thinking, and I will most certainly make sure that my blogs are organized like a paper in the future.
DeleteThank you for the response, but please don't change the post. You can respond here is you want to discuss any changes you would make. The original post must remain the same or responses don't make sense.
Delete