From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 19:36:27 GMT
Subject: Re: Darwin and Fascism



"Survival of the fittest" is widely  mis-understood
as meaning survival of the strong in a war of every
individual against every other individual. But just because
it is mis-understood, that is no reason to give up on
a perfectly reasonable idea.

Nico said

>I have quoted a sentence of Charles Darwin which 
>was quoted by R. von Bredow in  her essay on 
>the pages 160 to 162 in Der Spiegel.

It is usual when quoting an author to give (a) the name
of their book or article, (b) the name of the publishers,
(c) the place of publication, (d) the year of publication,
and (e) the page number in their book. So tell me, 
did R. von Bredow do this ? And can  _you_  do it ?
If not, what we have here is an indirect alleged quote.
Such indirect alleged quotes have a habit of turning
out to be  MIS - quotes.

Unless you can come up with the normal standard 
of quotation details, the case against Darwin remains
"Not proven". Yes, he probably did share many of the prejudices 
of his age. But it seems a bit unfair to condemn a man
on the strength of "probably". Nor is it Darwin's fault that

>>Social Darwinism became a handy excuse for ruthlessness.
>>In the words of Prince Peter Kropotkin, ideologues
>>twisted Charles Darwin's conception of nature...

and after all

>>It was Darwin himself, said Kropotkin, who had shown
>>that "sociability" conferred an important evolutionary
>>advantage...

(These quotes are from the entry on Kropotkin on
pages 258 and 259 of "The Encyclopedia of Evolution", 
edited by Richard Milner, published by "Facts On File", 
in New York and Oxford, in 1990.)


Dave