Friday, April 15, 2011

Not Enough Food

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
Thomas Malthus summarizes that populations are limited by the availability of resources. Darwin's idea that for evolution to occur individuals must compete for limited resources and only the most efficient at obtaining those resources will survive to produce offspring. If Darwin had not heard of this idea he may have come to the same conclusion by himself but if he hadn't, Darwin would not be able to explain why species develop in certain ways. Not only the church but the scientific community itself was mostly against Darwin's ideas and caused him to delay the publication of his book because of the social backlash.

1 comment:

  1. The basics are there, but I would have liked to have seen your explanations covered a little more extensively, particularly more specifics on Malthus' work.

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