Charles Darwin

 
 I I would choose English Economist Thomas Malthus. I would choose Malthus because he inspired Darwin in his discovery of natural selection.

2.      Malthus was a demographer and political economist, known for his views on population growth.  He made a prediction that population would outrun food, which would lead to a decrease in food per person.  Malthus used animals as an example by pointing out that when nature animal’s increase is because there is plenty of resources and less predators. Although Malthus hypothesis was proven wrong, he did influence Charles Darwin to extend his principles not only to humans, but to all organisms.

(New World Encyclopedia)

                  

3.        This is the point I feel was most affected by Malthus.

*Who gets better access to these limited resources? Is it random? Or are some organism better “fit” to the environment, enabling them to compete more successfully for resources and avoid predation better than others? Darwin hypothesized that organisms with traits that were better adapted to their environment would have greater reproductive success because those traits allowed them to be more competitive for the things they needed to reproduce.

Even though Malthus hypothesis in regards to humans was proven to be untrue it opened up some doors to look into other organisms that might be affected by his views. As Charles Darwin recognized that the size of a population can in fact impact the availability of resources. The constant war for food and water can only be won by those who are stronger which meant greater chances of survival. This is something we now see in real life. An example would be sharks and smaller sea creatures. We have even seen it with humans, for example when there’s a catastrophe people who lose everything try to take what others have in order to survive.  I believe that Darwin’s hypothesis that organisms with traits that were better adapted to their environment would have a greater reproductive success. Perhaps we can see it as the stronger creatures survive.

4.       I do believe that Darwin would have developed his theory without the influence of Malthus. Darwin had many influences such as his voyage which allowed him to see what nature had to offer. Perhaps without Malthus influence it would have taken him longer to come up with his theory; however, I believe Darwin’s passion and determination was his greatest influence.

5.       Darwin was afraid of contradicting the church’s belief that God was the only one responsible in the creation of all living things. Darwin was afraid of ruining his and his grandfather’s reputation. After 23 years of research finally decided he felt he had enough evidence to publish his book called Origins of Species, which is considered the book that t revolutionized biological science.