In "On the
Origin of
Species",
Darwin claimed
that there was a
continual
’struggle
for
existence’
in nature, in
which only the
(
more)
In "On the Origin of Species", Darwin claimed that there was a continual ’struggle for existence’ in nature, in which only the fittest would survive. This theory came partly from his reading of Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus and his followers believed that the earth could never support the numbers of human beings and other creatures that were born. For Darwin, the inevitability of a struggle for survival was the key to evolution by ‘natural selection’. Any individual plants and animals that happened to vary in an advantageous way would be more likely to triumph over their competitors. Only the survivors would produce offspring, which might diversify and develop further, to fill any available ecological niche. New species very gradually came into being, while many old species became extinct.
Darwin has already shown his reader the power of artificial selection and the exquisite variation that exists in nature. Crucial to this is what he calls "the strug...
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