Malthus and Darwin. Science, education and ways of life.

Abstract

This work argues that Thomas Robert Malthus, with his An essay on the principle of population, published in 1798, and Charles R. Darwin, with the publication in 1859 of On the origin of species by means of natural selection, warned us of the looming risks to the survival of species, including the human species, Homo sapiens. They taught us that education was an indispensable tool to lead a way of life that would keep us away from disaster. From the moment Darwin published the Origin of Species, his theory was introduced into English classrooms and shortly afterwards it was taught in different countries. In Spain, Darwinist concepts were included for the first time in a natural science textbook for the second grade in 1867. From them on, the teaching of the theory of evolution was very heterogeneous. Given that Darwin's ideas affect all fields of knowledge, both scientific and social and humanistic, this article proposes that his teaching could be implemented with an interdisciplinary methodology and at early ages, so that the population can acquire a holistic and multidisciplinary vision of life from the earliest educational levels.