Thomas Malthus and Charles Darwin: Analyzing the Influence of Malthus

     My Initial thought was to say that Jean Baptiste Lamark was the most influential individual in Darwin’s ideas, before further research, because he was the first person to suggest that humans evolved from a lower species through adaptions over time, thus inspiring Darwin’s theory of natural selection. However, According to further research by Thomas Leonard, in 2009, changed my opinion; because of Jean Baptiste Lamarks incorrect transfer of principle to Darwin, I would say that although a large contribution was made to Darwin’s ideas he did have a slight negative influence on Darwin’s study. On the contrary, I believe Thomas Malthus to be the most influential individual in Darwin’s study.  Malthus, though not a scientist, was an expert in economics and understood fully the growth and decline of populations. Darwin, intrigued by the idea of a quickly evolving population, one that is even quicker than the availability and production of food could continue on and lead to starvation, competition, and eventually level out. These factors were key contributors of Darwin’s ideas regarding “survival of the fittest”. Additionally, Malthus' ideas seemed to be the basis of support in Darwin’s study on the Finches of the Galapagos regarding their break adaptations.  This is to say that only certain individuals of a species who had favorable adaptations would survive long enough to pass down those traits to their offspring and continue on with evolution; the fundamentals of natural selection (Leonard, Thomas, 2009).

         According to research suggested by Keith Thompson, in 2015, In the late 70’s a work which inspired many theorists and scientists was the Essay on the Principle of Populations, written by Malthus and is popularly known as his best work. Malthus was highly interested in the idea that humans were living in poverty and worked to explain why. Malthus after research then suggested that populations would grow in areas with plenty of resources, however, those resources were over used to the point of some of the given populations would have to go without food or necessary resources for survival. What was so meaningful in the work of Malthus is that he not only found these problems but he also found solutions. His solution suggested that populations must maintain certain boundaries by increasing rate of death or lowering rate of birth. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace were inspired by the Principle of population and much of it influenced their own research as well; nature being reflected in the human population. His idea of overpopulation and death indisputably shaped many of the ideas of natural selection and the idea of Survival of the Fittest (Thomson, Keith, 2015).

            The two points made by Malthus, which largely inspired Darwin’s work, based on the bullet point list, is: Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts, as well resources as limited. Malthus focused on a solution in regards to the problem of more people than product as well as why and who is better able to obtain these resources and survive as well as reproduce largely and positively influencing the works of Darwin in his idea of Natural selection.

            I believe that although much of his work was inspired by ideas of Thomas Malthus I do believe because of the research he was currently doing and its relation to the ideas of Malthus, I believe he in fact would have himself come across and research the topic at some point of his career, Malthus provided him with additional inspiration and an intellectual idea to be built upon.

            During the Context of the Time the church institutions and scientific research group’s widely collided and frequently were in conflict with one another’s ideas and perceptions. The issue of the church in the scientific research of Darwin was the church system suppressing proven ideas which conflict with the power of the church. Often times the church would downplay Darwin’s research as him being a man who is simply struggling to believe in a higher power and obey religious rule. However the conflict was with in Darwin’s support for the church socially opposed to existentially leading to a complicated and conflicting relationship between himself, his work, religiously, socially, and over all institutionally; in the end leading to a late publish of the Origin of Species, surpassing him in his lifetime, sadly he was recognized after passing away, more so than in his study and research during his lifetime.

References

Jurmaine, Robert. "Heredity and Evolution." Introduction to Physical Anthropology. 2013-2014 ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Leonard, Thomas C. "Origins of the myth of social Darwinism: The ambiguous legacy of Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 71.1 (2009): 37-51.

Thomson, Keith. "1798: Darwin and Malthus." American Scientist. Sigma Xi, The Scientific  Research Society, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Jan. 2015.