2.) The contribution that Malthus made to the scientific community was population growth. For instance, the population growth in humans and species would influence food growth, hunger, and diseases. Malthus's work helped inspire Darwin's theory on the natural selection. Malthus was also better off remembered for his contributions to Darwin's theories.
http://www.allaboutscience.org/thomas-malthus-faq.htm
3.) In the link on "How does evolution work" talks about the natural selection, and the change in population. These are the points affected by this individual's work and have been influenced by Thomas Malthus. For instance, Darwin's theory is trying to discover how new species arrive, and with that being said is where the natural selection theory comes to hand. These factors were influenced by Malthus due to his work ethic on population change on humans and animals.
4.) Darwin could have clearly developed his theory of natural selection on his own, but it made it much rather easier for him due to Malthus's work inspiring him to research the natural selection much clearly.
An initial comment on your source: Your source is one listed on the Blackboard course under the "Bad Resources" page. This doesn't mean the information you found there is necessarily wrong but it does mean it has a better chance of being wrong. I suggest taking some time to review that page (along with the Good Resources page) to learn about locating reliable sources for your assignments in this course.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled as to your designation of Malthus as a "negative" influence instead of a positive one, but perhaps my comments here will better explain my puzzlement and help you understand why I disagree.
You have the very basics in the first section regarding Malthus' work. In order to make good connections between his ideas and Darwin's, more detail is needed. For example:
Malthus pointed out that populations have the potential to grow exponentially but resources only grow arithmetically. This creates a natural conflict between the two. Malthus then started by looking at how natural populations reproduced and noticed that they don't seem to have a problem with overpopulation, as if there was a natural force that limited the population size. Human populations, on the other hand, seemed to be missing this natural force and shot past their resource limits, creating the problems Malthus spoke of, such as famine and disease that reduced population numbers the hard way. But it was Malthus' observation of natural populations, and specifically the concept of the "natural limiting force" that intrigued Darwin. He wondered what this force was. Turns out it was the natural competition for limited resources, producing differential survival and reproductive success, i.e., natural selection.
For section #3, it asks you to select the bullet points that can be best attributed to Malthus' work. Which ones can you identify that fit this description?
While I grudgingly agree that it is possible that Darwin could have developed his theory without Malthus, I would argue that it would have been unlikely since Malthus idea of that natural limiting force in natural populations was the spark that lit Darwin's brain for his theory of natural selection. Even Darwin seems to suggest this in his own writings:
"In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long- continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, 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)
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
For the last section, yes, Darwin did publish but not before he delayed publishing for more than 20 years. This is a significant delay and should be recognized and understood. Why did he delay? What were his concerns? How might he have been negatively affected by publishing (personally and professionally) and how did the influence of the church play a role in this?
Realized too late that I didn't follow up on the issue of positive vs. negative influence. Because Darwin built his theory off of Malthus' concept of natural competition for resources due to the exponential vs. arithmatic growth rates of populations vs. resources, Malthus' influence was very much a positive one, as Darwin's quote above seems to support. This may have a touch of irony to it, as Malthus was not a supporter of evolutionary theory and would like have been horrified to know that his work was so critical to what is now the central theory of the evolutionary process.
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