Charles Malthus influenced Darwin with his knowledge of the growths and declines of populations. Darwin was very interested in this idea and studied it so he could apply it to his research.
Malthus was well known for is work in 1798, Essay on the Principle of Population. He was Economist and was very interested in human population throughout history. He discussed famine, war and disease, and how they effected population. His ideas were often argued by religious leaders.
Darwin was very interested in how the human population grew faster then the production of food. He watched as it led to many deaths due to starvation. He discovered population would have to level out at some point. This influenced one of Darwin's most popular idea "survival of the fittest." Malthus's ideas seemed to support all of Darwin's research of the Galapagos Finches and the adaptations of their beaks. This idea of "survival of the fittest" not only applies to the natural populations but also human populations as well. Malthus's ideas of overpopulations helped mold the idea of natural selection. After Darwin read Essay on the Principle of Population he saw a lot of his researched ideas being reflected on. "[He gave] Malthus a large portion of the credit for shaping their ideas and helping to hone the Theory of Evolution, and in particular, their ideas of Natural Selection"(http://evolution.about.com/od/scientists/p/Thomas-Malthus.htm).
"He discussed famine, war and disease, and how they effected population."
ReplyDeleteThis is too general a statement and is actually causally backwards from Malthus' work. Malthus studied population growth and hypothesized that failing to control human reproductive growth would result in catastrophic events that would rein in that growth, through the process of competition for limited resources resulting in famine, war and disease. It was this idea of competition for limited resources that Darwin used for his own work, but you needed to present more specifics were needed as to Malthus' theory and what information he presented that impacted Darwin's work.
"Survival of the fittest" was not one of the bullet points in the guidelines. Probably the most likely candidate was either the point of "resources are limited" and "populations are capable of multiplying exponentially".
Yes, good quote from Darwin. Even Darwin considered Malthus to be crucial to his work, but do you think Darwin could not have developed his theory without Malthus?
Missing discussion of final point regarding the influence on the church on Darwin's decision to publish?
Malthus argued that if population sizes were not controlled, famine and plagues would rule the world. I would say this inspired Darwin to think about the survival of the fittest and how that worked.,but I don't see that it's crucial to his work. If Malthus did not publish his theories, I believe Darwin would still have developed his survival of the fittest theory.
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