Week 1 Historical Influences on Darwin
After reading the text I think that Alfred Russell Wallace had the most influence on Darwin. Most people would not know this but, Wallace was the co-founder of the evolutionary theory.The bullet point that I believe fits the best for Wallace is if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be
different. In 1885, Wallace actually posted an article stating that all species were descendants of other's the appearance of the new species was due to environmental factors. These factors made the "new" species adapt to survive in different conditions. I do believe Darwin would have been able to publish his theory without Wallace but, without Wallace getting close to the answer Darwin would not have published as soon. When he saw Wallace getting close to figuring the theory out it kicked Darwin into gear to get his work published. The attitude of the Church was a big factor in how long it took Darwin to publish. With his wife being highly religious she feared that by him publishing it went against the view of the church.
Link for information about Wallace: https://www.npr.org/2013/04/30/177781424/he-helped-discover-evolution-and-then-became-extinct
Hi Haylie, I thought that your post was very good. I put another person down who had the most influence on Darwin's theory. I did not know that Wallace was the co-founder of the evolutionary theory, very interesting. I agree with you that the Church and his wife made Darwin post pone his publication.
ReplyDeleteHi Haylie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post on Alfred Russel Wallace. I did not find as much information. I also did not know that he was the co-founder of the evolutionary theory, which goes along with you saying most people. I like that you mentioned Darwin could have posted his theory without Wallace's theory. This is something I also touched on in my own post on Thomas Malthus. I said almost the same where he probably would have figured it out on his own, but having another opinion certainly helped.
Hi Haylie,
ReplyDeleteYour post on Alfred Russel Wallace was very Interesting. I also believe Charles Darwin could have published his theories without him as well. What I understood was that the more Darwin was influenced by each of these individuals the more it seemed he absolutely needed them in order to go on with this. Good Post!
Hi Haylie,
DeleteI found it interesting that the church was fighting with him regarding publishing his book. Also, I found the religious conflict between Darwin and his wife quite common even in todays era. I have found that many barriers have been broken down within families when it comes to religion. Today individuals are feeling more empowered to not limit their relationship to not only people that share their same beliefs. This blending of religion often times becomes more challenging once children enter into the relationship. However, with that said Darwin stood strong on his beliefs and disregarded what anyone said or thought.
Please think of these assignments as papers and format and present them accordingly. Each prompt should be addressed fully with its own separate paragraph of information. Explain fully and provide detail to help your reader understand your answer. There is no upper limit here for your word count. Expand. Show us what you know. Try to teach your readers something.
ReplyDelete"Most people would not know this but, Wallace was the co-founder of the evolutionary theory."
Correct, but there is a fascinating story on how this happened. Can you offer more background here? He developed this during his voyage in the Spice Islands and began a communication with Darwin, sending him specimens and bouncing ideas off of him. Eventually, it became clear to Darwin that Wallace and he were both developing the same mechanism, which finally drove Darwin to publish his work after more than a 20 year delay. He and Wallace jointly published a paper laying out their theory and then Darwin published his book "Origin of Species" which is probably why we remember Darwin when think of natural selection and not Wallace.
I agree with your choice of bullet points, but since both Wallace and Darwin developed the same mechanism, isn't it fair to say that ALL of the bullet points also apply to Wallace?
The question in the next section isn't about "publishing" his theory but "developing" it. Does that change your answer here? But I do agree that Wallace played a huge role in driving Darwin to finally publish his work. It is worth wondering if Darwin ever would have published if not for Wallace.
I agree with your points in the last section (and well done noting the influence of his very religious wife, Emma), but needed some expansion and detail here. Darwin delayed publishing for more than 20 years so it is worthwhile to try to understand the reason for this extensive delay. What were Darwin's concerns? How might he have been negatively impacted, professionally, personally and socially? And was he only worried about himself or was he also worried about how his family might be impacted by publishing? How specifically might his wife have been impacted if the church responded negatively to Darwin? Remember that scientists don't work in a vacuum. They can be influenced not just by academics but also by social, cultural and personal issues.
Hi Haylie,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that Alfred Wallace ,posted the article stating all species were descendants of others and new species were created because of environmental factors.
I do believe that new species were created and that those species also had adapt to their new environment. A perfect example,would be the finches that Darwin found on the Galapagos Island . He realize some finches,had short beaks and with environmental changes,the finches had to adapt and that’s when their beaks became stronger and bigger.
I did find it interesting that Darwin published his book because he did not want Wallace, to take credit for something he may have thought of.Once again people are in competition .
Hello Haylie
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post i think can't help but ask some questions about Alfred Russel Wallace, which I feel might be a problem. Although I'm not one to talk as I feel I might have skimmed through my own explanation in my post. I think explaining how Wallace reached the same conclusion as Darwin might add some meat into the post and by extension a better explanation of Wallace's impact.