Everything about Survival Of The Fittest totally explained
"Survival of the fittest" is a
phrase which is shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied by
Herbert Spencer in his
Principles of Biology of 1864, Spencer drew parallels to his ideas of
economics with
Charles Darwin's theories of
evolution by what Darwin termed
natural selection.
Although Darwin used the phrase "survival of the fittest" as a synonym for "natural selection", it's a
metaphor, not a scientific description. It isn't generally used by modern biologists, who use the phrase "
natural selection" almost exclusively.
An interpretation of the phrase to mean "only the fittest organisms will prevail" (a view common in
social Darwinism) isn't consistent with the actual theory of evolution. Any organism which is capable of reproducing itself on an ongoing basis will survive as a species, not just the "fittest" ones. A more accurate characterization of evolution would be "survival of the fit enough", although this is sometimes regarded as a
tautology.
History of the phrase
While the British economist
Herbert Spencer is often credited with introducing the phrase "survival of the fittest" in his 1851 work
Social Statics (relating to
free market economics) or his
First Principles of a New system of Philosophy of 1862, he actually didn't use the phrase until after reading
Charles Darwin's
On the Origin of Species. and introduced it in his
Principles of Biology of 1864, vol. 1, p. 444, writing "This survival of the fittest, which I've here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."
In
The Man Versus The State Spencer used the phrase in a postscript to justify a plausible explanation for why his theories wouldn't be adopted by "societies of militant type." He uses the term in the context of societies at war, and the form of his reference suggests that he's applying a general principle.
Thus by survival of the fittest, the militant type of society becomes characterized by profound confidence in the governing power, joined with a loyalty causing submission to it in all matters whatever.
In the first four editions of
On the Origin of Species, Darwin used the phrase "
natural selection", and preferred that phrase. However, Spencer's
Principles of Biology drew parallels between his economic theories and Darwin's biological ones and made first use in print of the phrase "survival of the fittest". Darwin agreed with
Alfred Russel Wallace that this phrase avoided the troublesome anthropomorphism of "selecting", though it "lost the analogy between nature's selection and the fanciers'." It was used by Darwin in the 5th edition of
The Origin published on
10 February 1869, in a secondary header of Chapter 4 about
natural selection
"Survival of the fittest" and morality
Critics of
evolution have argued that "survival of the fittest" provides a justification for behaviour that undermines
moral standards by letting the strong set standards of justice to the detriment of the weak. However, any use of evolutionary descriptions to set moral standards would be a
naturalistic fallacy (or more specifically the
is-ought problem), as prescriptive, moral statements can't be derived from purely descriptive premises. Describing how things are doesn't imply that things ought to be that way. It is also simplistic to suggest that evolutionary "survival of the fittest" implies treating the weak badly, as social behaviour cooperating with others and treating them well improves evolutionary fitness.
It has also been claimed that "the survival of the fittest" theory in biology was interpreted by late 19th century
capitalists as "an ethical precept that sanctioned cutthroat economic competition" and led to "
social Darwinism" which allegedly glorified
laissez-faire economics, war and
racism. However these ideas predate and commonly contradict Darwin's ideas, and indeed their proponents rarely invoked Darwin in support, while commonly claiming justification from religion and
Horatio Alger mythology. The term "social Darwinism" referring to capitalist ideologies was introduced as a term of abuse by
Richard Hofstadter's
Social Darwinism in American Thought published in 1944.
This claim is also an example of the
appeal to consequences fallacy – even if the concept of survival of the fittest was used as a justification for violence, this has no effect on the truth of the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Kropotkin and "survival of the fittest"
The famous
anarchist philosopher and scientist
Peter Kropotkin viewed the theory of survival of the fittest as supporting co-operation rather than competition. In his book he set out his analysis leading to the conclusion that the fittest wasn't necessarily the best at competing individually, but often the community made up of those best at working together. He concluded that "In the animal world we've seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense – not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress."
Applying this concept to human society, he presented mutual aid as one of the dominant factors of evolution, the other being self assertion, and concluded that "In the practice of mutual aid, which we can retrace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support not mutual struggle – has had the leading part. In its wide extension, even at the present time, we also see the best guarantee of a still loftier evolution of our race."
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