TG-1 * Transgallaxys Forum 1

Pages: [1]

Author Topic: "Survival of the fittest": 1. nicht von Darwin 2. dem Mentalplebs angepaßt  (Read 994 times)

ama

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1116

Von Darwin wird behauptet, er habe expressis verbis gesagt "survival of the fittest".

Tatsache ist, daß es immer als "Das Überleben des Stärksten" bzw. als "Der Stärkste überlebt" ausgelegt wird.

Die Wahrheit ist: "das Überleben des Geeignetsten", obwohl selbst das grob falsch ist, weil dabei die Statistik unterschlagen wird. Es ist reiner Zufall, ob ein schwacher, halbverhungerter Vogel noch einen Wurm findet und dann überlebt, während ein starker von einem Blitz erschlagen oder Opfer eines Buschfeuers wird.


Als Kurzfassung gibt es einen guten Kommentar hier:

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/darwin_survival_fittest.html

[*QUOTE*]
-----------------------------------------------------
Charles Darwin
The survival of the fittest
Charles Darwin is often credit with coining the phrase - "the survival of the fittest" - however such attribution is not really correct.

Darwin did write that:-
"In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment."

and that:-

"I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection"

Darwin had tended to write about species being engaged in a competitive Struggle for Existence. This struggle being seen, by Darwin, as primarily a struggle for food to support growth, life, and the generation of young individuals to continue the species in question.
The actual term survival of the fittest however was actually attributed by Darwin himself to another source:-

"The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient"
-----------------------------------------------------
[*/QUOTE*]


In dem wunderbaren Archiv der Briefe Charles Darwins gibt es zu "survival of the fittest" perverserweise nur 10 Treffer. Der älteste datiert auf 1866 und stammt nicht von Charles Darwin, sondern von Wallace! Er gibt uns den Schlüssel, WARUM Darwin die Bezeichnungen geändert hat: Damals wie heute sind die Menschen zu blöde, die Wahrheit zu begreifen - so daß man sich entschied, ihnen nach dem Mund zu reden, was sowohl damals wie auch heute grundfalsch war.


http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-5140.html

[*QUOTE*]
-----------------------------------------------------
Letter 5140 — Wallace, A. R. to Darwin, C. R., 2 July 1866

Lengthy analysis of sources of misunderstanding of natural selection. Advocacy of Spencer's term "survival of the fittest" instead of "Natural Selection". ARW urges CD to stress frequency of variations.
Transcription


----------------------

Hurstpierpoint, Sussex

July 2nd. 1866.

My dear Darwin

I have been so repeatedly struck by the utter inability of numbers of intelligent persons to see clearly or at all, the self acting & necessary effects of Nat Selection, that I am led to conclude that the term itself & your mode of illustrating it, however clear & beautiful to many of us are yet not the best adapted to impress it on the general naturalist public.
f1

The two last cases of this misunderstanding are,

1st. The article on ``Darwin & his teachings'' in the last ``Quarterly Journal of Science'', which, though very well written & on the whole appreciative, yet concludes with a charge of something like blindness, in your not seeing that ``Natural Selection'' requires the constant watching of an intelligent ``chooser'' like man's selection to which you so often compare it; f2—and

2nd., in Janet's recent work on the ``Materialism of the present day'', reviewed in last Saturday's ``Reader'', by an extract from which I see that he considers your weak point to be, that you do not see that ``thought & direction are essential to the action of `Nat. Selection'.''f3 The same objection has been made a score of times by your chief opponents, & I have heard it as often stated myself in conversation.

Now I think this arises almost entirely from your choice of the term ``Nat. Selection'' & so constantly comparing it in its effects, to Man's selection, and also to your so frequently personifying Nature as ``selecting'' as ``preferring'' as ``seeking only the good of the species'' &c. &c.f4 To the few, this is as clear as daylight, & beautifully suggestive, but to many it is evidently a stumbling block. I wish therefore to suggest to you the possibility of entirely avoiding this source of misconception in your great work, (if not now too late) & also in any future editions of the ``Origin'', and I think it may be done without difficulty & very effectually by adopting Spencer's term (which he generally uses in preference to Nat. Selection) viz. ``Survival of the fittest.''f5

This term is the plain expression of the facts,—Nat. selection is a metaphorical expression of it—and to a certain degree indirect & incorrect, since, even personifying Nature, she does not so much select special variations, as exterminate the most unfavourable ones.

Combined with the enormous multiplying powers of all organisms, & the ``struggle for existence'' leading to the constant destruction of by far the largest proportion,—facts which no one of your opponents, as far as I am aware, has denied or misunderstood,—``the survival of the fittest'' rather than of those who were less fit, could not possibly be denied or misunderstood. Neither would it be possible to say, that to ensure the ``survival of the fittest'' any intelligent chooser was necessary,—whereas when you say natural selection acts so as to choose those that are fittest it is misunderstood & apparently always will be. Referring to your book I find such expressions as ``Man selects only for his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends''.f6 This it seems will always be misunderstood; but if you had said ``Man selects only for his own good; Nature, by the inevitable ``survival of the fittest'', only for that of the being she tends'',—it would have been less liable to be so.

I find you use the term ``Natural Selection'' in two senses, 1st for the simple preservation of favourable & rejection of unfavourable variations, in which case it is equivalent to ``survival of the fittest'',—or 2nd. for the effect or change, produced by this preservation, as when you say, ``To sum up the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to natural selection'',f7 and again ``Isolation, also, is an important element in the process of natural selection'',f8—here it is not merely ``survival of the fittest'' but, change produced by survival of the fittest, that is meant— On looking over your fourth Chap. I find that these alterations of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in some cases the addition of ``or survival of the fittest'', after ``natural selection'' would be best; and in others, less likely to be misunderstood, the original term may stand alone.f9

I could not venture to propose to any other person so great an alteration of terms, but you I am sure will give it an impartial consideration, and if you really think the change will produce a better understanding of your work, will not hesitate to adopt it.

It is evidently also necessary not to personify ``nature'' too much,—though I am very apt to do it myself,—since people will not understand that all such phrases are metaphors.

Natural selection, is, when understood, so necessary & self evident a principle, that it is a pity it should be in any way obscured; & it therefore occurs to me, that the free use of ``survival of the fittest'',—which is a compact & accurate definition of it,—would tend much to its being more widely accepted and prevent its being so much misrepresented & misunderstood.

There is another objection made by Janet which is also a very common one. It is that the chances are almost infinite again the particular kind of variation required being coincident with each change of external conditions, to enable an animal to become modified by Nat. Selection in harmony with such changed conditions; especially when we consider, that, to have produced the almost infinite modifications of organic beings this coincidence must have taken place an almost infinite number of times.f10

Now it seems to me that you have yourself led to this objection being made, by so often stating the case too strongly against yourself. For Example, at the Commencement of Chap. IV. you ask, if it is ``improbable that useful variations should sometimes occur in the course of thousands of generations'';f11—and a little further on you say, ``unless profitable variati<ons> do occur natural selection can do nothing.''f12 Now such expressions h<ave> given your opponents the advantage of assuming that favourable variations are rare accidents, or may even for long periods never occur at all, & thus Janet's argument would appear to many to have great force. I think it would be better to do away with all such qualifying expressions, and constantly maintain (what I certainly believe to be the fact) that variations of every kind are always occurring in every part of every species,—& therefore that favourable variations are always ready when wanted. You have I am sure abundant materials to prove this, and it is, I believe, the grand fact that renders modification & adaptation to conditions almost always possible. I would put the burthen of proof on my opponents, to show, that any one organ structure or faculty does not vary, even during one generation among all the individuals of a species,—and also to show any mode or way in which any such organ &c. does not vary. I would ask them to give any reason for supposing that any organ &c. is ever absolutely identical at any one time in all the individuals of a species,—& if not then it is always varying, and there are always materials which, from the simple fact, that ``the fittest survive'', will tend to the modification of the race into harmony with changed conditions.

I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, & that you will be as kind as to let me know what you think of them.

I have not heard for some time how you are getting on.

I hope you are still improving in health, & that you will be able now to get on with your great work for which so many thousands are looking with interest.f13

With best wishes | Believe me My dear Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

C. Darwin Esq.
Footnotes
f1
CD had discussed the meaning of `natural selection' at length in correspondence with Charles Lyell, Asa Gray, and Joseph Dalton Hooker (see Correspondence vols. 8--10). He had attempted to clarify his use of the expression in Origin 3d ed., pp. 84--5. On CD's use of the term `natural selection' in Origin and the ensuing debate over it, see Young 1985, pp. 92--112.
f2
The anonymous article, `Darwin and his teachings', appeared in the April 1866 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Science; it contained a discussion of CD's use of the expression `natural selection' in Origin, and criticised CD for having endowed nature with `the intelligent faculty of designing and planning' (Anon. 1866, pp. 152--3). A lightly annotated presentation copy of the article is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection--CUL. See also letter from James Samuelson, 8 April 1866.
f3
The review of Paul Janet's The materialism of the present day (Janet 1866) appeared in the 30 June 1866 issue of the Reader, pp. 618--19. The final chapter of Janet 1866 contained a lengthy discussion of CD's theory of descent. The review included two extracts from Janet's book; however, Wallace is paraphrasing the remark of the reviewer: `In conclusion, M. Janet states that natural selection only becomes a fruitful principle by admitting choice and direction' (Reader 6 (1866): 619). Janet had also emphasised the importance of final causes in a previous review of Origin (Janet 1863); see Correspondence vol. 12, letter from E. A. Darwin, 5 January 1864.
f4
In Origin, p. 469, CD wrote: `Why, if man can by patience select variations most useful to himself, should nature fail in selecting variations useful, under changing conditions of life, to her living products?' CD does not write about `Nature preferring' or `seeking only the good of the species' in Origin; however, he wrote of natural selection `favouring the good and rejecting the bad' (p. 469), `preserving and adding up all that is good', and acting `only through and for the good of each being' (p. 84).
f5
Herbert Spencer first used the expression `survival of the fittest' in the October 1864 instalment of Principles of biology (Spencer 1864--7, 1: 444--5): `This survival of the fittest, which I have 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'''.
f6
The sentence appears in Origin, p. 83, and is unchanged in later editions (Peckham ed. 1959, p. 168).
f7
This phrase from Origin, p. 107, was changed in the fifth edition as follows: `To sum up the circumstances favourable and unfavourable for the production of new species through natural selection' (Origin 5th ed., p. 123).
f8
Origin, p. 104; this sentence was substantially altered, and `natural selection' deleted, in the fifth edition (Origin 5th ed., p. 121).
f9
Chapter 4 of Origin was headed `Natural selection'. In the fifth edition of Origin, CD added the expression `survival of the fittest' to the heading of chapter 4, and inserted `survival of the fittest' at seven places in the text of that chapter (Origin 5th ed., pp. 92, 95, 103, 105, 125, 145, 160). CD added `survival of the fittest' at six other places in the fifth edition of Origin (Origin 5th ed., pp. 72, 168, 226, 239, 421, and 556). For more on CD's adoption of this phrase, and his use of Spencer's work, see Paul 1988 and Haines 1991. In his own copy of Origin (Rare books--CUL), Wallace deleted `natural selection' and inserted `survival of the fittest' at various points in the text.
f10
See n. 3, above. This criticism from Janet 1866, p. 182, is printed in the Reader, 30 June 1866, p. 619.
f11
In Origin, p. 80, CD wrote: `Can it, then, be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and complex battle of life, should sometimes occur in the course of thousands of generations?' The passage was unchanged until the sixth edition, in which `thousands of generations' was changed to `many successive generations' (Origin 6th ed., p. 63).
f12
The passage appears in Origin, p. 82; in the fifth edition, `profitable variations' is replaced by `such' (Origin 5th ed., p. 94).
f13
CD had been working on Variation since January 1860 (see Correspondence vol. 8, Appendix II).

Annotations

5.4 ``To sum … selection'' 5.5] cross in margin, pencil

6.1 I could … adopt it. 6.4] crossed pencil


© 2007, University of Cambridge
-----------------------------------------------------
[*/QUOTE*]



.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2009, 07:51:00 AM by ama »
Logged
Pages: [1]