I would have to say that, personally, I believe that Thomas Malthus was the biggest influence on Charles Darwin for the soul reason that his work was sort of a precursor to his ideas. He was introduced to the works of all 5 of these men at a young age but Malthus’ essay An Essay on the Principle of Population “inspired both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in their separate discoveries of natural selection.” (Intro. to Physical Anthropology 30).
Malthus’ essay described the effect of the rise of human populations and food resource production. He argued that if human beings did not monitor their reproduction, the resources handy for consumption would be a “constant source of misery and famine” (31)
In this site you will find a brief explanation of Malthus’ discovery and its affect on Darwin.
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/darwin/intro.html (halfway through second Paragraph).
Quite fitting, though it may seem, is the fact that the very first bullet point is a pinnacle point of Malthus’ ideas! The bullet ends with a question, “But we are not up to our eyeballs in rabbits are we, why not?”. I like this question because it makes you think and also makes you consider Malthus. If his conclusions are correct, then resources are a pivotal reason as to why reproduction is lowered. Think about it, now a day’s food costs a lot of money. So, if you have trouble feeding yourself and your partner, are you going to have a baby which needs diapers and formula? No. I know it is not exactly the point but it runs the same lines. If a rabbit produces babies 200 times in their lifetime, they will always be providing for young. Does this account for dry and cold winters or droughts? Probably not.
I think Darwin would have arrived at his conclusion without Malthus but in some other way. Malthus inspired Darwin, this is true, but without him someone else probably would have inspired him instead.
Though Darwin attended Christ’s College at Cambridge, he was not an extremely religious person. However, the church was not thrilled with Darwin’s discoveries of evolution because it strictly contradicted their belief of creation.
I really liked the way you responded to the question about the rabbits. I also agree with you on the point you made about the fact that food prices have increased and if you do not have the money to feed yourself and your partner the last thing you would do is add another mouth to feed making food even more scarce.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that Thomas Malthus was the biggest influence on Darwin's discovery.He ispired Darwin through he's essay and helped him develope his theory of natural selection.I also like the way you analyzed and answered the questions and the logic that you applied to them!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an interesting point in that humans seem capable of making the conscious choice to reproduce or not to reproduce. Do we see that in any other organisms? Does that mean we only reproduce for logical reasons or do we also reproduce instinctually like other organisms? A mix of both? Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteThe issue of Darwin's attitude toward religion has long been a hot topic. Darwin wrestled with his religious beliefs all his life, and was particularly antagonistic toward religious beliefs and God after the death of daughter, Annie. But his family, and in particular his wife, was very religious and he was concerned about the repercussions of his work on their social circumstances and in their opinion of him.
Good post.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very interesting. It made me feel as if you knew exactly what you were talking about and not only that, but that you truly believe in the point you are trying to bring across.
Although I didn't chose Malthus, I still loved learning and reading a whole new perspective of how his ideas are relevant to Darwin's and I appreciate that you connected the idea about the rabbits to Malthus' work in such a clear way that it allowed me to comprehend and have a text to text connection. Thank you.
p.s. I like your Blog title.