While this perspective ["survival of the fittest"] may be common among those primates who live in the concrete jungle of Wall Street, it doesn’t hold true for the natural world more generally.
Darwin understood that competition was an important factor in evolution, but it wasn’t the only factor. Cooperation, sympathy, and fairness were equally important features in his vision for the evolution of life. In The Descent of Man he wrote, “Those communities which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.”
By working cooperatively, by sharing resources fairly, and by ensuring that all members of society benefited, Darwin argued that early human societies would be more “fit” than those societies where members only cared about themselves.Scientific American
The Gospel of Wealth Fails the Inequity Test in Primates
Eric Michael Johnson
(h/t Mark Thoma at Economist's View)
