Total Darwin Rewrite in progress: “Survival of the fittest” now means “sympathy”

The Darwinians must have considered the possibility that they aren’t popular for a reason:

Yet Darwin’s use of the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ was hardly meant to suggest that existence was a knockdown, drag-out fight – he was very clear that generosity, sympathy and all those other traits that give us warm feelings are central to human survival.

“Don’t misread Darwin: for humans, ‘survival of the fittest’ means being sympathetic” at Aeon

Funny how so many people, whether they agreed with Darwin or not, got it so wrong all these years … How did it get to be called “social Darwinism” anyway, as opposed to, say, “social Florence Nightingale-ism”?

You know, it’s almost like Darwin didn’t really think what some now need to portray him as thinking …

Florence Nightingale/Henry Hering

Note: Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was an important figure in the development of hospital nursing.

See also: Do racial assumptions prevent recognizing Homo erectus as fully human?

Was Neanderthal man fully human? The role racism played in assessing the evidence

and

Teilhard De Chardin: The “Evolution” Priest’s Legacy Included Racism and Social Darwinism, Says Theologian

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