Who gets better access to these resources? Thomas Malthus proves that in an environment with limited resources causes competition towards these resources. This is called natural selection. Natural selection is not at random, and it's specifically targeted at those whom are not fit for certain environments.
Now Darwin could have learned about Thomas Malthus' hypothesis on natural selection. However without Malthus, Darwin would have thought that populations grew until they were aligned with their resources. Without Thomas Malthus, it would have probably taken a while for Darwin to come across Malthus' idea on natural selection with limited resources, but eventually I'm sure he would have came to the conclusion
The attitude the church had towards Darwin's view on evolution and natural selection struck up an anti-revolution against his publication of his book, Origin of Species. (http://biologos.org/questions/christian-response-to-darwin) The link given shows the Christian's reaction towards his book because it completely went against Catholicism due to the controversy of creation and evolution. Overall with the help of Thomas Malthus, Darwin is and forever will be known for his work on evolution.
"Malthus helped Darwin focus on natural selection with the concept of biological fitness and how natural selection can form traits of surviving animals through out the incoming generations."
ReplyDeleteHow? Can you draw the connection for us that takes us from Malthus' work to Darwin's?
I agree with the bullet point you chose. One correction: Competition by itself is not natural selection. Selection is the process of some organisms having greater reproductive success than others because they possess traits that grant them better access to resources in comparison with other organisms that don't possess those traits.
Do any other bullet points apply to Malthus?
Malthus did *not* develop the concept of natural selection. In fact, he was an anti-evolutionist. Applying Malthus concepts of economics was entirely Darwin's actions.
Darwin read Malthus' work after he returned from his voyage, so he had a mountain of data to organize and was having trouble consolidating it around a central idea. Malthus' idea of competition for resources and the question of "who wins that competition?" provided the key that Darwin needed to develop his theory.
The final question asks about the churches influence over the publication of Darwin's work. Why did Darwin delay publication for more than 20 years?
A caution on your first source: It is listed under the page in the course called 'Bad Resources" because of it's alignment with the intelligent design crowd. Make sure you review the sources listed there so you can watch out for them.
(Late submission)