1.) I did research on Thomas Malthus, who I believe has a great influence on Darwin and his studies. Thomas Malthus was an economist, which Darwin was intrigued by his essay "The Principals of Population". Malthus statement of perpetual struggle is that those that were less able to survive and reproduce would eventually die out, ("The population growth would always overpower food supply growth, creating perpetual states of hunger, disease, and struggle.")Thomas Malthus. This statement is similar to one of Darwin's bullet points to the four processes of Natural Selection, which is, the struggle of existence.. In a sense, Malthus believed that disease and hunger were systems placed by God to stop over population,
2.) Malthus share a positive influence, in this case, Darwin was able to build from Malthus idea of perpetual struggle which helps base a hypothesis in his study of evolution. But the theory of evolution is that new species are generated over time through traits passed on in reproduction of the most capable. So can species become extinct? more like evolved in time until eventually becoming something new species.
3.) Could Darwin have developed this idea without Malthus's essay? No, because in the context that Malthus introduces the various struggles of nature, and that the less are capable of surviving brought both of them to study the competitive nature in life. But sparked an idea for Darwin to imply that this was "evolution in natural selection".
3.) Could Darwin have developed this idea without Malthus's essay? No, because in the context that Malthus introduces the various struggles of nature, and that the less are capable of surviving brought both of them to study the competitive nature in life. But sparked an idea for Darwin to imply that this was "evolution in natural selection".
4.) With this idea, Darwin anticipated that the he could come into a lot of problems with the church, with the example of Galileo. Because he knew his studies went against the church, as blasphemy. The Church strictly believed that everything being on this planet was the design of God and Darwin's Theory was more of species creating new species. His theory on evolution was so influential it could impact a new era in science and a change in society. The Church rejected the book, but later came to accept and publish his book "Origin of Species", but it was banned.
Good post overall, but a couple of comments:
ReplyDeleteYou said in the first paragraph: "Malthus statement of perpetual struggle is that those that were less able to survive and reproduce would eventually die out, ("The population growth would always overpower food supply growth, creating perpetual states of hunger, disease, and struggle.")"
Those two statements are not the same thing. Malthus was highlighting the potential for exponential growth that is found in all natural populations and argued that humans have the potential as well, which would lead to famine, death and disease. He is NOT arguing for selective survival of organisms, i.e., Malthus didn't explore who survived or did not survive. Darwin took that particular step on his own.
You raise this again in section 3. The "struggle" and "competition" weren't Malthus' focus. He was trying to convince people that they should use birth control and reduce their offspring numbers to prevent disaster. He really didn't concern himself over who lived and who died. That was a different question asked by Darwin.
I agree with your conclusions in the final section, though the church didn't publish it. It was published as a scientific paper and later as a book by a company outside of the church. I don't think the book was banned but it was not viewed favorably by the church.
Other than these points, good post. Also, please be careful of your sources. The one you list is considered to be an unreliable source and should not be used in future assignments.
I thought you wrote a very good blog entry on Malthus and Darwin. We had pretty much the same ideas, I'm sure you have noticed that the whole class pretty much picked Malthus though. haha
ReplyDeleteNice blog too.
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