Originally posted by robbie carrobie
i am sorry i dont find anything in your statement which supports your assertions. The
fact of the matter remains that Hitler was deeply influenced by Darwin and Spencer,
your assertion that he was not is simply not true. Regardless of what it means, it was
used as a basis for the most utterly inhumane affairs, from economics and a
justifica ...[text shortened]...
the way that it has.
Yes its late, i am wasted! I am Scottish, you are English, what of it?
The phrase 'survival of the fittest' is often misunderstood, and has frequently been used to justify things that a correct
understanding of it, and its application in evolutionary biology would never justify.
And this is even before you get to the fact that the applications it has been put to would fall fowl of any moral code
worth the name.
The context of the phrase is the 'natural selection' part of evolution by natural selection.
Those individuals of a species that have random adaptations that increase their survivability to the point of reproduction,
stand a better chance of passing on those adaptations to the next generation.
This was pithily reduced to survival of the fittest.
The question, and misunderstanding stems from the word 'fittest'.
Fittest is a tricky concept here, and doesn't necessarily mean bigger, tougher, stronger, in the physical sense.
A classic example is the prevalence of sickle cell anemia in those living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Carrying the recessive gene for Sickle Cell Anemia significantly increases your chances for surviving malaria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_trait
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_%28biology%29
So it turns out in Malarial regions having the gene for a crippling and unpleasant genetic disease actually boosts
your chances of survival.
Going to one of the original inspirations for evolution the Galapagos fiches, it was beak size and shape that gave
advantages in eating certain nuts/seeds/fruits, that determined fitness.
There are also advantages in situations where there is no great evolutionary pressure, for a species to diversify
and increase its genetic and structural variation (within limits) so that if/when at some point in the future some
sudden change in environment or appearance of some new disease threatens the species, there is a greater chance
that some individuals will be resistant or better adapted to the new environment, thus improving the species chance
of survival.
So you can see that simply claiming that being more belligerent or martially successful made you 'evolutionarily superior'
and thus had more of a right to survive... yada yada yada... tripe they came out with...
Is not, and never was, supported by evolutionary theory.
They deliberately or otherwise misunderstood and misappropriated evolution to justify their aims.
This is a bit like claiming to be influenced by Marx and advocating capitalism.
You can claim it as much as you like but you're just wrong, and you can't claim it to be Marx's fault that you failed to
understand what he said.
Hitler was not influenced by Darwin... he was influenced (maybe, this assuming its not just trying to gloss over something
they were going to do anyway for other reasons.) by a misunderstanding (deliberate or otherwise) of what Darwin proposed.
It is thus inaccurate to claim that either Darwin or evolutionary theory were in any way to blame for the actions of a tyrant
dictator 100 ish years later.
I was just curious why you translated into English the title of Mein Kampf,
It's not like anyone would not know what you were talking about if it's titles in German.