1. If I had to choose
one person who has influenced Darwin’s theory on Natural selection it would be
Thomas Malthus. Thomas wasn’t a scientist at all he was actually an economist.
He did research on populations and their growth or decline. Darwin became fascinated
by “the idea that the human population was growing faster than food production
could sustain. This would lead to many deaths due to starvation and how the
population would eventually have to level out.” This information led to Survival
of the Fittest and is the cornerstone of natural selection.
2. Thomas
Malthus contribution to the scientific community was The Ecology of Human
Populations. His most famous work was published in 1798 which was an essay on the
Principle of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society.” In
this paper he argued that if left unchecked, a population will outgrow its
resources, leading to a host of problems. “
Links: www.study.com
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3. Points 1-5
From How does evolution work? Have to do with Thomas Malthus work Each point
describes Thomas argument on how population growth can lead into famine and catastrophe
for me it looks like the great depression. Yes, I know it was done through
other consequences and it’s out of the subject but the lack of food and the
pictures that show us going through famine and the need of food gives us a taste
on how over population could lead up too. Point one talks about how all
organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially we all agree that is
true. We do have a potential of having as many kids as we would like now that
we have all the technology that we didn’t have before like insemination or egg
donors who can give you the blessing of having your own child because you aren’t
able too. But Then Points 2-5 take place which are the questions of
·
What is preventing organisms from reproducing
at their potential:
As a parent we need time, shelter, food, water, and protection.
·
Resources are limited:
Our planet has a limit of how much it could hold and produce. The
more we reproduce the more land we have to build home on and the less land we
have to build farms or anything that can grow us food.
·
Organisms with better access to resources
will be more successful in their reproductive efforts:
Thomas had two types of checks Preventive checks: are voluntary
actions people can take to avoid contributing to the population and the other
one was because of his religious beliefs and that supported concept was called
moral restraint: in which people resist the urge to marry and reproduce until
they are capable of supporting a family. This means waiting until a larger age
to marry.
·
Who gets better access to these limited
resources?
The people who take their time and are blessed with money are the
ones that will mostly survive because they will be able to support their family
the most if it comes down to a crisis, but as human beings and in the time of
age we live in who knows how this situation if it comes could play out. I
honestly feel that we are able to feed the people in the world and including
the ones that are lacking food because our technology is ground breaking and it
is advanced enough to replicate and if it is not replicate we can mesh fruits
together or something. I forgot what I read since it was so long ago all I know
is that we can make a Stranaple which made my jaw drop I believe it had
something to do like what we’re learning with Mendelian Genetics on how he got
a paint brush and pollinated another pea plant and got different kinds of pea
genetics.
4. To be honest
I believe if someone sets their mind on something they will be successful. You
have to devote yourself into your work completely of course. In my opinion how
does someone get inspired if not through someone’s work. Darwin was inspired
through his fascination of nature and came to a conclusion, through that he
started doing research came across other people’s theories and he added them or
put them as examples and came up with his overall theory which was The theory
of evolution by natural selection. To put my point in a clearer word’s here is someone’s
else’s point of view: Charles Darwin may be known as the father of Evolution,
but he was influenced heavily by many people throughout his life. Some were
collaborators, some were influential Geologists, and some even from the family
itself.”
5. The church
affected Darwin in a negative way in the beginning of course. During Darwin’s
time the church was basically the one in power and they can either make you or
break you when it came to your reputation, especially when they thought your research
was blasphemous to God at that time. So Darwin had to hold back his point of
view and research that he has gathered because he knew that it could tarnish
his reputation in society. During his time, he couldn’t speak of to anyone
because they would think he was crazy and especially with no proof. The only
person he could express his ideas with was with his brother. When the time came
and Darwin had everything put together he published his findings and beliefs in
a book that we all know and have probably read which is known as “On
The Origin of Species.”
i agree with you in terms of Malthus having the biggest influence on Darwin. Malthus' book that he published in 1798 was so inspiring to Darwin and others.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you when you talked about how the church had a negative impact on his work. The church was furious because Darwin said that there was no God and that evolution is real. I believe the book would never had been published if Darwin wasn't so passionate of his work.
Good sources.
ReplyDeleteCan you explain Malthus' work? More background would have helped your reader make the connection between Malthus' work and Darwin's. For example...
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. He was a bit of a doom and gloom kind of guy.
I agree with your choice of bullet points one (exponential growth) and three (resources are limited) as these directly arose from Malthus work. The others are where Darwin took that work on his own. You can't find them in Malthus' papers themselves because he didn't concern himself with what was keeping natural populations from reproducing to their full potential or why some organisms have better access to limited resources than others. Malthus was only concerned with the overpopulation of human populations and the consequences of that event.
You will find that there is a lot of crossover between topics in this course! One of the reason I have you do this assignment, so that you can start to see these interconnections.
I understand your point in section #4 but you don't really address the question. Do you think Darwin could have developed his theory without Malthus? Now while I acknowledge that many scientists influenced Darwin, I rarely would be willing to go so far as to say that any of them were indispensable to Darwin's work. Malthus is one of the few who might qualify (Lyell and perhaps Wallace are two others). Malthus' concept of limited resources, leading to the concepts of competition and differential success and survival were so central to Darwin's work, that they truly are the keystone to the mechanism of natural selection. History tells us that Darwin had returned with a rough framework for his theory after his voyage but had trouble putting all the pieces together until he read Malthus work. Darwin even refers to that "ah-ha!" moment in his 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)
Good explanation in your final section, with two clarifications: First, the only reason Darwin published is because he thought he would lose credit to Wallace. It wasn't an issue of being ready or not... he had to publish. Second, the book wasn't published first. Darwin and Wallace co-published a paper on the topic. The book came out later.
Hi Wendy!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how in depth you went in regards to Malthus' life and all of his contribution to science as a whole, as opposed to just Darwin which was a nice addition. I personally love history, so the fact that you also used the example of the Great Depression as a reference to show how Malthus' concept of how over population can really affect food and famine. I think you had some great ideas there!