Thomas Malthus arguably born on valentine's day ( February 14, 1766) was not a man of science but an economist who introduced population growth and decline to Darwins observations in the Galapagos. He had the idea that areas with vast resources would grow in population, and once the resources decreased so would the population. It was this idea transformed on the Essay the Principle of Population that helped Darwin shape one of his most notorious studied theories, Natural Selection "survival of the fittest".
Malthus directly affected Darwins view on the fact that resources are limited and those with better resources would be more successful, his findings on population growth mirrored Darwins finding as a tell sing that he was on the right track. Darwin as a few others praised and gave much credit to Malthus for helping develop the theory of Natural Selection.
In my opinion, although Darwin has accredited Malthus for being an influence, the overwhelming evidence of Natural Selection Darwin found on his expeditions would ultimately lead him to the same conclusion.
Darwin kept most of his findings to himself with the exception of his brother, he knew that going public meant challenging the church more specifically their believe on how the earth came to be as pictured in Genesis the first book of the bible. It was not until he was completely satisfied with his research which took 23 years that he felt comfortable with making his finding public.
Thomas Malthus Source
I agree with your analysis of Darwin's and Malthus's scientific relationship. You make a fair point about Darwin's comfort with publishing, but there was another thing that finally pushed him to publish. Alfred Wallace was going to publish a paper with a very similar idea to Darwin's natural selection, and this was what finally pushed Darwin to publish his ideas.
ReplyDeleteHello, Alejandra
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I could definitely tell that you are a straight forward person and your post is an example of it. I agree with your comment on how Thomas was the one who opened the doors to Darwin when it came down to his notorious theory :Survival of the fittest" Thomas is accredited by Darwin but a lot of people don't credit him enough. But I enjoyed you input and honesty and I appreciate the number of years it took Darwin to feel comfortable with his work. I didn't know that.
Hi Alejandra,
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading your post. I also did mine on Thomas Malthus so I can easily relate to what you said.He was for sure a huge inspiration for Charles Darwin. I agree with what you said, how Malthus affected Darwin with the fact that they had limited resources. I believed that you had really good input and it was nice reading more information about Malthus.
hi Alejandra
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you imbedded some facts and other finding about Malthus. your post was really constructive as well as informative about Malthus contributions
"He had the idea that areas with vast resources would grow in population, and once the resources decreased so would the population."
ReplyDeleteYou are on the right track here, but let's clarify things a bit.
Malthus, as a mathematician, observed that populations reproductive rate could allow them to grow at an exponential rate. But he also observed that resources could only grow at an arithmetic rate, i.e., their increase occurred at a much slower rate. This produced a conflict between populations and resources, with populations outgrowing their resources (Darwin recognized this as producing competition for limited resources). Malthus also observed that there seemed to be limiting mechanisms in place in natural populations that prevented them from growing past the carrying capacity of their resources, but that human populations seemed to be missing those limiting mechanisms. From this, Malthus' key point was that human populations were destined to overpopulate and unless they learned to control their reproduction (he was a great proponent of birth control), we would face famine, disease and war as means of reducing our populations sizes. That's Malthus' work in a nutshell.
You are correct that Malthus' work opened Darwin's eyes to the force of competition for limited resources, and Darwin was interested in Malthus' observation about those natural limits to population size. What specifically was limiting the population size? He concluded that some organisms were better built to compete for those resources in certain environments. In a sense, the environment was selecting those organisms who would survive and reproduce. Hence: Natural selection.
Another important bullet point that can apply to Malthus is the first one regarding the exponential growth rate potential of populations.
Yes, Darwin did give Malthus great credit in his writings, so I'm not sure why you stray away from that in the end of your third section. If Darwin says that Malthus was important for Darwin's work, why doubt it? :-) From Darwin's writings:
"...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)
Regarding your final conclusion: There were a few others in his inner circle who knew of his work, including his wife and (notably) Charles Lyell, who was instrumental in getting Darwin to finally publish after Wallace sent him his theory. While it has been argued that Darwin was just waiting for his theory to be "perfect", it is important to recognize that more was likely driving him than this. What possible repercussions might Darwin have experienced as a result of publishing from the church and its representatives? Was he only worried for himself or for other members of his family as well?
Yes, he did give much credit to Malthus as he was a major role player in in his findings... but I also believe he just gave him a slight advantage and the evidence Darwin found was so abundant that even without Malthus help he would have eventually emend up with the same conclusion although it would have implied more work for Darwin.
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DeleteAnd, as Darwin wasn't trained as an economist or a mathematician, how would he have come about obtaining this information?
DeleteMy point is, Malthus was uniquely qualified to provide this information for Darwin, concepts Darwin was not trained (as a naturalist) to figure out for himself. I do acknowledge that it is possible, but unlikely.
Thank you for the response.
yes, that is a very good point I was not seeing it in that perspective. just out of curiosity from the list you gave us who would have you picked to have had the most influence on Drwins work ?
DeleteGood Afternoon Alejandra!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love how cute your blog is because it makes it more engaging for the readers! I agree Malthus was a huge inspiration to Darwin and when it came to "Survival of the Fittest." I believe Malthus does not get enough credit for his work especially when it comes to his work under Darwin and I think that he deserves way more credit. Overall really good job on answering the questions concisely and making a solid analysis about Malthus.
Alejandra, I really like the points you made in the post. I particularly liked where you said that in your opinion that Darwin would probably made the same conclusions as Malthus. I think in science it is sometime believed that people always need help from other people, but I think for the most part that the scientists will figure it out it will just take a little longer.
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