La naturalización de la economía-política y su influencia en la biología darwiniana: Townsend, Malthus y el germen de la selección natural

Daniel Labrador-Montero

doi:10.31637/epsir-2024-781

Authors

Daniel Labrador-Montero University of Salamanca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5095-1021

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-781

Keywords:

Malthus, Darwin, Townsend, struggle for existence, political economy, evolution, Poor Laws, natural selection

Abstract

Introduction: The relationship between the origins of Darwinian evolutionary biology and liberal political economy has been a significant case study for historians and philosophers of science. Methodology: This paper explores, through an exhaustive analysis of primary and secondary sources, how some notions of classical economics, particularly Malthus' theory, influenced Darwin's ideas. Results: It is argued that the influence of Malthus on evolutionary biology was not accidental. British political economy, from the physiocrats to Adam Smith and Joseph Townsend, naturalized economics, thus facilitating the conceptual transfer to biology. Discussion: It is argued that Townsend preceded Malthus in naturalizing economics, planting the seeds of a proto-conception of the struggle for existence. Conclusions: This study reaffirms the significant impact of political economy on Darwin's theory, concluding that the sharpening of the naturalization of political economy was a crucial element for such influence to occur and be fruitful.

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Author Biography

Daniel Labrador-Montero, University of Salamanca

Daniel Labrador Montero holds a PhD in Logic and Philosophy of Science. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Salamanca and a member of the University Institute for Science and Technology Studies at the same university. His lines of research are the philosophy and history of science and STS studies (Science, Technology and Society). Most of his contributions have focused on the philosophical and historical study of conceptual feedback between social sciences and biology. However, he has also published works on the history of philosophy, transhumanism and current issues in philosophy and STS studies.

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