Isn't Darwin's 'the survival of the fittest' actually a tautology?

Question

That is, that the species that reproduces the most, is the species that reproduces the most...

Answer 1

Actually, the term was coined by Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, and it referred to free market economics (after Spencer was inspired by Darwin).

Darwin's theory of evolution has to do with successful survival and reproduction strategies -- those with the better strategies or adaptations winning out over the ones with the less successful strategies/adaptations

Answer 2

I like the answer given by the second poster.  I should add that the term "survival of the fittest" was coined by Spencer BEFORE Darwin published his "Origin of Species".  As the poster said it was an economic phrase.  It is common for people not familiar with evolution to make that incorrect assumption, at least in America where we have so many people who don't care about a good and thorough science education.

Even if applied to evolution, It is not an tautology as it doesn't say "that the species that reproduces the most is the species that reproduces the most".  What the Origin of the Species says is that the species that is best adapted to the environment will be the one that reproduces the most.  The more comfortable you are with your environment the more successful you will be in life.  (Which doesn't imply you should seed a life of ease.)

Answer 3

Yes, but it is not a trivial tautology as you describe.

Simply reproducing the most is actually a poor strategy for most life, as it tends to consume all the resources in the habitat, causing extinction.  We have many ideas what the fittest is, but the final arbiter is what survives.  So yes it is a tautology, but it is one that is not immediately obvious, and will sometimes be counter to your expectations.

EDIT:

Not to contradict the great Alan Turing, but "Survival of the fittest" is indeed a tautology.

What survives?  The fittest.

What is the fittest?  That which survives.

Answer 4

Turing nailed this.  

A couple comments. "Survival of the fittest" is not even implied by Darwinian models.  Contrary to many modern post-modern non-readers of Darwin, Darwin was not a reductionist, but rather an almost Aristotelian encyclopaedist!  He did not write cliches but rather struggled for years to reach the simplest (and most profound) ideas!

I've never liked this phrase.  When I taught evolution in my historical geology classes, this was the first myth I attacked - supplanting it with "survival of the adequate".

Answer 5

The species that reproduces the most on Earth is bacteria. Most of the biomass on the planet isn't animal, or plant, but bacteria. It was put forward as A mechanism. Survival of the most adaptable. Survival of the luckiest. Survival of the most fecund. Survival of the most disease, or parasite resistant. There are many competing mechanisms, and many different directions.

Answer 6

Rather, I tend to think that

"The most successful are the ones that have survived"

Reproduction does not need to be in quantities to be successful, it just needs to be successful in any amount, into the next generation.

Some ecological niches are very small and isolated, but have been there for a long time, eg, blind cave fish may number in the thousands, but have been surviving for millions of years in isolation. This is success, just as much as the millions of salmon swimming upstream in Canada each year.

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and

You exist because all of your ancestors, from the beginning of life on Earth, successfully reproduced.

What are the odds of that?

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