Malthus the Mentor

Thomas Malthus

(1766-1835)

Thomas Malthus played the most positive influence over Darwin's development of his theory of Natural selection. Malthus's An Essay on Principle of Population was inspiration to Charles Darwin's discovery of natural selection.

Malthus's contribution to the scientific community was his argument in which limits should be placed on population sizes because eventually food supplies and other important resources will run out. An example of his hypothesis being tested is the current human population approaching 7 billion. Thomas Malthus also inspired Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Darwin stated in his autobiography (1876), "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 favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable 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" http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html.

Although Malthus had no interests in species change, he did argue limits to human population. His major point in his essay was "that in nature animal populations increase in numbers when resources are plentiful and/or there aren't many predators" (pg. 34). The points most directly affected by Malthus's work are:

1. All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially.
• In Malthus's An essay on the Principle of Population, he explains that for a population to increase, it relies on the the amount of resources available. All organisms do in fact have the potential of reproducing exponentially as long as the food supply remains stable.
2. What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?
• Malthus believed that humans could produce more food to lower the amount of restraints on population sizes. However, Malthus also believed that "the lack of resources would always be a constant source of misery and famine for humankind if our numbers continued to increase" (pg. 34). In this case, the lack of resources would soon be preventing humans from reproducing to our full potential.
3. Resources are limited.
• The most important point Malthus makes is the fact that when the population is limited due to a lack of resources available, there will be a continuous race for those valuable resources. This will be the basis of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Survival of the fittest.

In my opinion, Charles Darwin might have eventually developed his theory on natural selection without the help of Thomas Malthus because he was studying by himself when he found thirteen different finches, all resembling one another, however, slightly adapted to the different environments they were found. However, I also believe that if it weren't for Thomas Malthus's An essay on the Principle of Population,  there would not be a basic foundation for Darwin to form his hypothesis upon.. With this being stated,  Thomas Malthus essays and work played a significant role in influencing Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.

The attitude of the church, during the 1820's,  viewed  evolution, theories, and scientists as suspicious and associated them with atheism and socialism. The fear that if these ideas were widely popular "the church would crash, the moral fabric of society would be torn apart, and civilized man would return to savagery" (pg. 34). Darwin, being cross to the idea of religion, ended up studying theology. After his graduation Darwin voyaged the world. While in the Galapagos Islands, he studied a species of finches which leads to the publication of his book On the Origin of Species. This will forever change the way we perceive the natural world.