Thomas Malthus

1. Out of the five contmeporary individuals I would argue that the most influential person to the development of Darwin's theory of natural selection would have to be the english economist by the named of Thomas Malthus.

2. Thomas Malthus wrote an "Essay on the principals of population". This important essay enormously influenced Charles Darwin. Malthus wrote about the struggle for survival and its relationships by stating the food supply is limited, but animals will continue to breed until there are too many for the available food. At which there are too many for the available food. Which they will continue to breed until there are too many for the available food. At time they will compete for resources to survive. Darwin started thinking about natural selection, how it should be the characteristics of the survivors through succeeding generations, how this could account for the diversity among the species and their evolution over periods of time.Darwin framed Malthus work in natural terms both in outcome and it's ultimate reason.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html

3. I have two points I believe influnced and affected Darwin in many ways. The first one was the

-Resources are limited. Our planet has a limit of much it can hold and produce. There will not be enough resources available for all organisms to reproduce as many offspring as they can." As mentioned in the book the important fact is that when population is limited by resource availability there must be competition for food, water.Malthus argued that the lack of resources would always be a constant source of “misery” and famine from humankind if our numbers keep continuing to increase.

-Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts. The rabbits with more food and water and shelter will reproduce more offspring than those rabbits with fewer of these resources. As mentioned in the book 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.

4.I believed Darwin’s theory of natural selection could not be developed without the influence and ideas of Thomas Malthus. Thomas Malthus enormously influenced Charles Darwin, because he was arguing for limits to human population, growth. If population size increases exponentially while food supplies remain relatively stable. Darwin recognized the important fact that when population size is limited by resource availability, that there will always be competition for food.And competition between individuals is the main point to understanding natural selection.

5. The attitude of the church, public opinion was negative.Darwin slow downed on the procces of publishing his book “On the origin of species” because he was hesitant by the church because Darwin knew it will also be a controversy to many people. Those who believe in an absolutely literal interepretation of the bible accept no compromise. Religion and science concern different aspects of the human experience, and they aren’t inherently mutually exclusive approaches. Darwin was also troubled by his wife emma she saw his ideas as running counter to her strong religious convictions.