Why “survival of the fittest” is a misnomer.

Charles Darwin did not coin the phrase “Survival of the fittest.” That was Thomas Huxley attempting to popularize Evolution by Natural Selection, but the phrase did become how most naive observers understand Darwin’s theory. But the term “survival of the fittest” is misleading.

The term “fittest” implies that there is some sort of universally “fit” or “perfect” specimen. Actually, the fittest is simply the specimen which is more likely to survive and then replicate in the environment into which it is born — the most adept at fitting into the available environment, which may change over time. “Fittest” thus just means most adept at adapting.

As Darwin put it “…it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

And the term “survival” is also misleading, as survival is useless without replication. Replication is the goal, survival is just a pathway. Survival and accumulation of wealth, status and power carry no genetic material into the next generation, and therefore make no contribution to evolution, without replication.

So “survival of the fittest” should instead be called “differential replication through being adept at adapting.” (Not exactly a catchy meme.)

In differential replication, characteristics embedded in DNA molecules which create specimens which are more successful in replicating will

increase in number so that the species will eventually come to have more of those characteristics.

The centrality of replication, not just survival, points to the critical (but often undervalued) role of cooperation. Outside of rape, replication does not occur without mutual cooperation. (That is why rape is seen as the most heinous crime short of homicide.) During sex each  partner obtains pleasure by providing pleasure to the other. Mutual attraction does not seem to be based entirely on mutual selfishness, although two selfish individuals can agree to use each other for selfish reasons. Instead sex (and procreation) is more likely to result from mutually shared feelings of love, empathy, kindness, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, honesty, integrity and humility. More on the centrality of cooperation in evolution by natural selection later.

Remember, the key to evolution is differential replication through being adept at adapting, not survival of the fittest.