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Re: Survival of the Fittest
Assoc Prof Chris Healey (C_HEALEY@BANKS.NTU.EDU.AU)
Thu, 14 Sep 1995 09:09:20 GMT+0930
I've come to this debate late in the piece, and my comments may have
been disposed of already by previous respondents, so I will be brief.
Have I missed something important? I thought our Culture Hero Darwin
wrote about Survival of the Sufficiently Adequate, which is a long
way from being Fittest. When it comes to adaptation and evolution,
it is sufficient for individuals to somehow muddle through life long
enough to bequeath their genetically coded advantages to the next
generation. Sahlins made a similar point in respect of
human cultural adaptation back in 1969 in his paper "Economic
anthropology and anthropological economics".
A notion of adequacy should be great comfort in this (culturally)
competetive environment.
Chris
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