5.1.2 What Spencer Meant To Say?

The Critical Rationalist                       Vol. 01  No. 04
ISSN: 1393-3809                                    31-Dec-1996

5.1.3 Misconception 1: Logic

5.1.1 On "survival"

5.1.2 What Spencer Meant To Say?

(57) I suggest that the only correct interpretation of Spencer's phrase (which is not necessarily the interpretation Spencer himself intended) is the following: we interpret "survival" as L-survival (i.e. survival of (S-)lineages); we interpret "fitness" as S-value; "the survival of the fittest" is then at once the assertion that:

There exist lineages which may be distinguished by inheritable characteristics (S-lineages).
At least some of these S-lineages interact with each other in such a way as to give rise to a selection process.
The eventual outcome (L-survival) of this process is then quasi-deterministically related to the relative S-values ("fitness") of the participating S-lineages: hence "survival of the fittest".

(58) As it stands this is essentially just a claim that processes of natural selection do, in fact, take place in the biological world. As such, it encompasses just the inheritance and selection theses of my . It is then a correct, although very incomplete, statement of . It is certainly not tautological.

(59) Again, it must be emphasized that this non-tautologous formulation relies on the fact that S-value (fitness) is not defined by S-lineage "survival"--rather it is, in principle, something that can be assessed of an S-lineage isolated from the selection process, but which is then predictive of the outcome of that process.

(60) However, confusion might arise in cases where, for independent reasons, one already believes that the displacement of one S-lineage by another is, in fact, a case of selection: in that scenario one can validly, and non-tautologically, infer that the surviving S-lineage must have had the greater S-value.

(61) Essentially this (correct) interpretation has been commonly identified in the literature--for example by Medawar (see Moorhead 1967, p. 12), and Hodge (1983, p. 58).

5.1.3 Misconception 1: Logic

5.1.1 On "survival"

The Critical Rationalist                       Vol. 01  No. 04
ISSN: 1393-3809                                    31-Dec-1996

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