1. Select one of the five individuals listed above who you would argue had the most influence over
Darwin’s development of his theory of Natural selection. This could be a positive or a negative
influence.
The most important person to effect the work of Charles Darwin was Thomas Malthus. The work Malthus had accomplished had shown Darwin how natural selection could be explained. Although Malthus was attempting to provide evidence for the control of the human population both Wallace and Darwin were able to apply his observations to all living things. It was a positive influence as Darwin now knew what factors to look for in order to explain exactly how a species would be able to thrive and sustain later generations.
Briefly (but completely) describe the contribution this individual made to the scientific community.
You must provide one link to an online source of information besides your textbook. No Wikipedia
sources! ( 10 pts)
Malthus was best known for his work in deciphering the economic state of humankind. He was known to take records of birth, death, age of marriage and other significant details. He also gave birth to the misunderstood word of Malthuism, in which it is believed society will evetually starve due to increasing populations and lower food productions.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html
From the bullet point list above (under “How does evolution work?”), identify the point (or points)
most directly affected by this individual’s work and thoroughly explain how this point was
influenced by your selected individual. Again, this could be a positive effect, meaning Darwin built
upon the knowledge this information provided, or a negative effect, meaning that Darwin
demonstrated that this individual’s idea(s) were incorrect and the mechanism of natural selection
was an alternative explanation. (10 pts)
A vast majority of the points surround the ideas that Malthus had observed. Specifically how resources are limited and that a species has the ability to reproduce exponentially. As an economist and someone who studies populations these factors directly relate to Malthus' works. This is also the reason why I chose him as an influence as I felt he had the greatest positive impact on Darwin. Darwin was able to take his knowledge even further and apply it to all living things.
Could Darwin have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence and ideas of this
individual? Explain. (10 pts)
I believe at one point he would have. Darwin had known about natural selection but it was only the "how" that Malthus had given him. It was sort of a push I would say.
How did the attitude of the church affect Darwin and his eventual publication of his book On the
Origin of Species? (10 pts)
I agree, Malthus and Darwin had very similar beliefs and influenced one another's work. They provided each other evidence to support one's theory. Wallace and Darwin learned many of their ideas from writer Malthus.
ReplyDeleteGood opening paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have seen a little more explanation of Malthus' work that most influenced Darwin, specifically the idea of how the arithmetic growth of resources produces a conflict with the exponential growth of populations, producing competition for those limited resources.
I agree with your bullet point choices, but others are important as well, but recognize that part of their importance is that they led Darwin to ask other questions, such as "who gets those limited resources?" That was the key question that led Darwin to understand the connection between access to resources, improved survivorship and reproduction, and how that could influence how the population looked and how it could change.
It is difficult to know how much of a "push" Malthus gave Darwin (as you say) but even Darwin seems to acknowledge that it was important:
"... 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.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
Final question is not answered?