Topic: Evolution
Quote: But you ignored an important part of your own quote, "Thus, without an independent criterion for fitness, other than survival,..." And of course, Darwin did most certainly express other criterion besides survival. Let me help clarify for you. Survival is not the sole requirement, or even the most important requirement. It should be quite clear to even the most muddled thinker that reproduction is required. In fact, reproduction is the most important requirement. Survival is necessary only long enough for an organism to reproduce, and if an organism doesn\'t reproduce, it is an evolutionary dead end no matter how long it survives. You see, as was mentioned in your definitions and in comments, natural selection is differential reproduction. Natural selection is not a tautology. Only the phrase, "survival of the fittest" reduces to a tautology.
Response: Which, as stated, Darwin thought was in fact a better phrase, or \'more accurate\'...\n"But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer, of the Survival of the Fittest, is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient." \nfrom the 6th edition of "Origin of the Species"\nhttp://www.literature.org/authors/da...hapter-03.html\n
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