In my opinion, Alfred Russel Wallace had the greatest amount of influence on Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. According to NPR.org, Wallace spent eight years exploring wildlife in the Dutch East Indies. Evolution.berkeley.edu states, "Wallace supplied Darwin with birds for his studies and decided to seek Darwin's help in publishing his own ideas of evolution." NPR.org also states, "by 1855, [Wallace] had come to the conclusion that living things evolve." Three years later, Wallace sent Charles Darwin A copy of his own nine page theory of natural selection. Darwin was astonished by how similar Wallace's findings were to his own. Wallace's ideas were very similar to Darwin's ideas and they began working with each other. They even published a paper together about natural selection and evolution.
NPR.org states, "[Wallace] was on the island of Halmahera, ill with a fever when it came to him: Animals evolve by adapting to their environment. "This must have greatly influenced the point, "if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different."
I believe that Darwin indeed could have developed his theory of Natural Selection without Wallace. Darwin had already began writing his book, the Origin of Species before he started working alongside Wallace. Wallace was simple the support and reassurance Darwin needed to publish his book and release his findings to the world.
The attitude of the church seemed to have made Darwin wait over twenty years to publish his findings. Religious scientists and almost everyone else had doubted Darwin's beliefs, so he did his best to refrain from sharing his thoughts with many people. Instead, he waited until he was able to gain more evidence and facts before he published his book.
Very good description of Wallace's work. I enjoyed your writing style which helped to tell the story in a clear way that kept my attention.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with your choice of bullet point, but isn't it fair to say that ALL of the bullet points apply equally to both Darwin and Wallace, since they both developed essentially the same theory?
I agree that the primary support Wallace supplied wast the encouragement Darwin needed to finally publish, though I see it as less the "support and reassurance" you speak of and more of the kick in the pants to convince Darwin that he should move on publishing or lose the credit for a theory he had worked on for more than 20 years. It was less a hand-holding as it was absolute terror that he would lose that credit!
While I'm sure Darwin wanted to be sure that his theory was well-supported and clearly argued, were his reasons for delay purely scientific? Or did he have other concerns? What about the impact on his professional career? What about how publishing would impact him personally? His wife was a devoutly religious woman. Might Darwin have been worried about how this could affect her and her standing in society? Scientists don't just live in a bubble. They are influenced by all those around them and may make scientific decisions for very non-scientific reasons.
Hi! Great job on your response. I was trying to find someone who didn't write about Thomas Malthus because it seems like a lot of people wrote about him (myself included). It's interesting to think that Wallace supplied Darwin with birds for his studies and even wanted Darwin to help him publish his own theories on evolution. I never knew that. Also, I do think that Darwin could have formed his theory without the help of Wallace, but I think he really needed and appreciated the reassurance and validation that Wallace's work gave him because their ideas were so similar. Anyways, great job!
ReplyDeleteHi! I read your post and I liked the way you summarized all the major key elements of the subject. But may I also include to your last paragraph that Charles also was conflicted in publishing his findings due to his wife's religious beliefs.
ReplyDeleteIn your third paragraph you state; "I believe that Darwin indeed could have developed his theory of Natural Selection without Wallace." and I strongly disagree. At that time, religion was used more in regards to explaining why and how things happened. "Divine Power" was usually the answer to anything that couldn't be explained. Charles must have felt alone and frankly scared to reveal his findings due to this, in my opinion. I believe that if it wasn't for Alfred, Charles Darwin would have never had that final motivation to publish his book.
Overall, I love your post!