Thomas Malthus — was an English economist. He wrote an essay titled On Population. In the essay, Malthus argued that human populations grow faster than the resources they depend on. When populations become too large, famine and disease break out. In the end, this keeps populations in check by killing off the weakest members. Summary Darwin was influenced by other early thinkers, including Lamarck, Lyell, and Malthus. Darwin was also influenced by his knowledge of artificial selection.
Explore More Use this resource to answer the questions that follow. Review What is the inheritance of acquired characteristics? What scientist developed this mistaken idea?
Uniformitarianism was first defined by Scottish geologist James Hutton, and later solidified with Lyell's work, Principles of Geology. James Hutton proposed that natural laws on Earth and in the universe have always been true since the beginning of creation. He further asserted that changes are slow and happen gradually over very long periods of time. The radical theory of uniformitarianism went against conventional geological and religious views of the time.
Lyell argued that geological forces other than unique natural catastrophes like biblical floods and violent storms shaped the Earth. Lyell also thought the process was directionless. He noted the different layers and concluded that the islands were millions of years old. Lyell and Darwin discovered extinct species, but wrongly dismissed the claims of Georges Cuvier from France that animal extinctions were caused by asteroids, volcanoes and sudden sea level changes.
Mary Dowd studied biology in college where she worked as a lab assistant and tutored grateful students who didn't share her love of science. Her work history includes working as a naturalist in Minnesota and Wisconsin and presenting interactive science programs to groups of all ages. She enjoys writing online articles sharing information about science and education. Currently, Dr. Dowd is a dean of students at a mid-sized university. Forces That Cause Landforms.
His book titled Principles of Geology is thought to be one of the most important scientific books ever written because it proposed a way to study the forces that changed the geology of the earth by observing geology of the modern world. This directly contrasted the theories of catastrophism and supernatural occurrences. In this book, he introduced his theory of uniformitarianism. This is the idea that by using observations of current natural processes, we can predict how processes occurred in the past.
In order to do this, we must accept that changes in nature occurring millions of years ago are similar to the changes that occur today. A stunning claim, but certainly Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology , published in , shook prevailing views of how Earth had been formed. His book was an attack on the common belief among geologists and other Christians that unique catastrophes or supernatural events -- such as Noah's flood -- shaped Earth's surface.
According to this view, a once-tumultuous period of change had slowed to today's calmer, more leisurely pace. Lyell argued that the formation of Earth's crust took place through countless small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according to known natural laws.
His "uniformitarian" proposal was that the forces molding the planet today have operated continuously throughout its history. He also wrongly assumed that these causes must have acted only with the same intensities now observed, which would rule out asteroid impacts and the like.
Darwin read Lyell's landmark text while on the Beagle , and was much inspired by it.
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