I choose Alfred Russel
Wallace because he kind of worked hand in hand with Charles Darwin. I feel If
Wallace had not been there so they can motivate each other with there work then
his ideas could have been different. Both Wallace and Darwin found inspiration
in a book by Thomas Malthus Principles of
Population 1797 where they were inspired by the idea of population growth. It
then occurred to both of them that plants and animals would be experiencing the
pressures of population growth as well. The only way that they could survive is
if they had favorable traits that helped them do so. Darwin called that process Natural Selection.
Wallace supplied birds for Darwin to help in his
studies of Natural Selection when he went on a trip to South America and Asia. In 1858 Wallace sent Darwin
his work which was almost just like Darwin’s.
So Darwin finally
ended up publishing his book The Origin of
Species in 1959. If Wallace and Darwin had never heard of each other Darwin might not have been
motivated to publish his findings. I think he feared what the church might have
thought of them. But with Wallace and his ideas following so close behind he
had to take credit for his ideas right away. So I would say Alfred Russel
Wallace had a pretty big influence on Darwin.
(http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14)
Judy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of your points, although I don't think if Wallace wasn't there to encourage Darwin in publishing his theories he would have never done it. He would have gone through with it eventually
Judy,
ReplyDeleteI liked your point about Wallace and Darwin motivating each other to success however although he was important, I do not agree that Wallace was the most influential person simply because many of the others contributed much more work to his theory on evolution. Wallace was simply there working along side him and that leads me to believe that he was more of a partner or a peer and less of a driving force in Darwin's work.
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ReplyDeleteIn general, your facts are sound Wallace with just a couple of omitted points:
Darwin began work on his theory much earlier than Wallace, delaying more than 20 years to publish. The didn't develop concurrently, though I like your comment about how both were influenced by Malthus. Good point.
Initially, Darwin and Wallace shared the publication of a scientific paper, shorter but no less significant in terms of scientific value. The book was published some time later.
So you would argue that all of the bullet points would apply equally to Darwin and to Malthus?
I agree.. I do wonder if Darwin would ever have published if not for Wallace.
You mention that Darwin may have feared what the church might have though of his ideas, but was he just worried about their thoughts? What repercussions might he have been concerned with? Was he only worried about himself professionally, or perhaps about family members as well?
Otherwise, good start to the class.
Judy,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that Wallace was the most influential person on Darwin. After all, they practically worked together on developing the ideas on natural selection by exchanging letters on their thoughts of the topic.