Dawkins and Malthus

For those of you that have read Dawkins you will have found scant direct reference to Malthus. Yet Dawkins nonetheless clearly expresses many Malthusian views. This is the subject of my article Dawkins - An Exponentialist View.

In this brief blog post I ask Mr Dawkins to carefully read Malthus's essay on population (1st and 6th editions) and consider not only Malthus' enormous influence on Darwin's theory of Natural Selection but also a subject more important than evolutionary theory...a subject Dawkins himself has written on...namely unsustainable population growth.

Then quote Malthus. Don't just rely upon Matt Ridley to do your reading for you.

David

Survival Of The Fittest

What does it mean, in evolutionary terms, to be "fit"? One explanation can be given in Malthusian terms as the growth rate of a population was deemed, by evolutionist R A Fisher (in 1930), as as the measure of fitness of a genotype within an environment. Or, to put it bluntly, the higher the population growth rate then the "fitter" the population.

This may indeed be true and relates to an evolutionary principle known as differential reproduction.

However, the fitter a population is then the quicker it reaches the carrying capacity of its environment...the limits to growth.

Hence, fitness is both a blessing and a curse for any population. The fit may outbreed the unfit, but will always face limits to growth.

David