Survival of the fittest, term made famous in the fifth edition (published in 1869) of On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin, which suggested that organisms best adjusted to their environment are the most successful in surviving and reproducing. Darwin borrowed the term from English sociologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer, who first used it in his 1864 book Principles of Biology. (Spencer came up with the phrase only after reading Darwin’s work.)
Herbert Spencer's Principles of Biology (1864) first introduced the expression “survival of the fittest.”
Survival of the fittestQUICK FACTSKEY PEOPLEAlfred Russel WallaceHerbert SpencerRELATED TOPICSAdaptationNatural selectionDarwinian fitnessUse in evolutionary theory
Darwin did not consider the process of evolution as the survival of the fittest; he regarded it as survival of the fitter, because the “struggle for existence” (a term he took from English economist and demographer Thomas Malthus) is relative and thus not absolute. Instead, the winners with respect to species within ecosystems could become losers with a change of circumstances. For example, fossil evidence supports the notion that the mammoth (Mammuthus) was more fit during the most recent ice age (which ended roughly 11,700 years ago), but it became less fit as humans hunted it and the world’s climate warmed; fossil evidence suggests that the mammoth succumbed to extinction a few thousand years later.
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection entailed three crucial elements: variation, reproduction, and heritability. Variations in the physical features of organisms that tend to benefit an individual (or a species) in the struggle for existence are preserved and passed on (or selected), because the individuals (or species) that have them tend to survive. The success or failure of a given variation is not known when it emerges; it is known only retrospectively, after organisms that possess it either grow and mature and pass it to their own offspring or fail to mature and reproduce.
Importantly, Darwin was influenced by the thinking of English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton, whose system emphasized experimentation, mathematics, and logic over subjective sense experience. During Darwin’s time, his evolutionary theory was an attempt to construct a similar system for the living world, a frontier not yet crossed in the biological sciences.
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Some philosophers and scientists have suggested that the notion of survival of the fittest is an example of circular reasoning—that is, a tautology (a statement framed in such a way that it cannot be falsified without inconsistency). In tautologies, any true statements that follow are a matter of definition. Indeed, describing those that survive as the fittest is similar to stating that those that survive survive. British philosopher Karl Popper considered “survival of the fittest” self-evident at first; however, he changed his mind after realizing that Darwin posited variation axiomatically; that is, Darwin noted that all individuals did not start with the same set of characters (or traits). Therefore, the forces affecting survival did not weigh on individuals and species equally; there were always variations, some of which would prove favourable and confer fitness over others.
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