Question

How did Malthus' ideas of population checks (e.g., famine, disease, death) in Principles of Populations (1798) influence Wallace and Darwin's ideas about evolution? This idea is sometimes referred to as "survival of the fittest."

Answer 1

Thomas Malthus's ideas on population growth and resource limits influenced Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, which posits that individuals with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, leading to evolution.

Step-by-step explanation:

Thomas Malthus's ideas about population checks, such as famine, disease, and death, had a significant influence on Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's formulation of evolutionary theory. Malthus, in his work 'Principles of Population' (1798), posited that populations, when unchecked, tend to grow exponentially, leading to a situation where the food supply may not be adequate to support the increasing numbers, leading to 'positive checks' like famine, disease, and war to reduce the population.

Darwin, upon reading Malthus's essay while aboard the HMS Beagle, realized that these 'positive checks' could form a 'struggle for existence' among individuals of a species. This struggle, he reasoned, would favor individuals with advantageous traits that would increase their chances of survival and reproduction. Ultimately, this led to Darwin's theory of natural selection, a cornerstone of evolutionary biology and a mechanism by which populations could adapt to their environment over time, popularly known as 'survival of the fittest.'