The ideas of “natural selection” or “Darwinism” are familiar to almost everyone who has an elementary understanding of the natural sciences. It invokes the notion of constant struggle for survival and competition. Only those who are strong will stay alive. Might makes right, in the most literal sense of the term. Even though it is the “Law of the Jungle”, it is commonly believed today that mankind lives outside this jungle, and has escaped the clutches of natural selection.
While the animals instinctively tear each other apart for survival’s sake, humans supposedly are far too advanced for such barbarity. Mankind has long since moved beyond this base instinct of the “survival of the fittest”. We do not try to kill one another, and indeed, even cooperate with each other in order to better ensure our survival. Even though we are not perfect, as the existence of murder, theft, and war indicate, the existence of the human race today is removed totally from any ideas of “natural selection,” and as convincing as this narrative may appear, this entire paradigm of thinking is wholly incorrect.
To be sure, it is true that interpersonal cooperation makes individuals much more productive than they would be in autarkic production. Economists have shown for centuries that the division of labor makes people much more productive than would otherwise be. Additionally, it is true that people today generally do not view each other as potential enemies or threats to their own existence, as they would be forced to do in a setting of brutish nature. However, it is not the case that the civility that people enjoy today was originally an outcome of his own moral stature or belief in non-violence. Man was not driven into cooperation because of his desire to reject natural selection, but because of it.
Some clarification of terms is useful here. The common conception of “natural selection” views it exclusively in terms of creature-vs-creature. In reality, the mechanism of natural selection is much broader than this. Organisms must not only survive against others, but in must survive in their environment. Ludwig von Mises understood and emphasized this crucial point:
Both schools [referring to Social Darwinism and its critics] misunderstood the Darwinian concept of the struggle for survival. It does not refer merely to combat and blows. It means metaphorically the tenacious impulse of beings to keep alive in spite of all factors detrimental to them. As the means of sustenance are scarce, biological competition prevails among all individuals-whether of the same or different species-which feed on the same stuff. It is immaterial whether or not tigers fight one another. What makes every specimen of an animal species a deadly foe of every other specimen is the mere fact of their life-and-death rivalry in their endeavors to snatch a sufficient amount of food. (Theory and History, pg. 39)
As Mises points out, it is a creature’s environment that he must survive within. Other organisms are certainly elements within that environment, but do not wholly comprise it.
Organisms, through the idiosyncrasies and random movements of nature, will gradually evolve and exhibit different characteristics. These differences between organisms will naturally affect their ability to survive in their environment, with those who are more will-adapted surviving at the expense of those who are less well-adapted. Animals and plants we find living in areas with little rainfall have evolved mechanisms by which they can survive without much precipitation (such as many species of cacti, for instance). The differences that these organisms manifested made them more likely to survive within their environment, and as a result, they survived on while others that were less adapted did not.
For millennia, this was all there was to the world’s biological story. Organisms continued to evolve to changing climates and some lived and some died and so it goes. Natural selection just keeps chugging on. Several thousand years ago, mankind came onto the scene. We as a species started out as hunter-gather nomads, but eventually started to form larger communities and grow. Fast-forward to present day, and the world has been largely conquered and tamed by mankind. The modern world is filled with technological marvels and wonders of engineering. Diseases that once killed millions are all but eradicated. What started off as humble bipedal hunter-gatherers have become a planet-conquering race.
However, this success did not come through a rejection of the mechanism of natural selection, but through working within it. Man is, unlike all other animals, species, and organisms, uniquely gifted with the construct of reason. He is granted a conceptual grasp upon himself and the world greater than any other found in all of nature. It was with this reason that man made a monumental discovery. Instead of competing with others, cooperation with others allows for everyone to achieve a greater ability to survive. Instead of the differentiation within all individuals serving as the basis for competition within our environment, those differences can be the basis of trade and cooperation.
If I have a particularly adept ability to bake bread, and my neighbor has a particularly adept ability to craft shoes, one can see an obvious opportunity for trade here. I am better off baking bread and trading my excess bread for the excess shoes of my neighbor. We both get what we want and are wealthier because of the trade. Undoubtably, the option of violence is always available as well. I could simply kill or threaten to kill my neighbor and receive shoes from him in that way. However, violence is always risky. Perhaps he is actually stronger than me and instead I am the one forced to pay tribute to him. Additionally, violence is disadvantageous in the long-term. If I kill him, then I can no longer receive any furniture from him, and continually threatening him can lead to retribution. Regardless, peaceful transaction is more productive and efficient, so it benefits both me and my neighbor for us to trade cooperatively with each other.
Notice that the motivation for peaceful trade has nothing to do with altruism. It is not through a desire to create a more moral society that I engage in peaceful trade, but through my own desire to survive. This change of attitudes has the secondary effect of promoting and encouraging peace and harmony between individuals, but this is not the primary motivator for their trade. The emergence of the division of labor in society was a result of the mechanism of natural selection, not a desire to escape from it. Mises, again, clearly saw and understood this dynamic in the evolution of human civilization:
Man alone by dint of his reason substituted social cooperation for biological competition. What made social cooperation possible is, of course, a natural phenomenon, the higher productivity of labor accomplished under the principle of the division of labor and specialization of tasks. But it was necessary to discover this principle, to comprehend its bearing upon human affairs, and to employ it consciously as a means in the struggle for existence. (Theory and History, pg. 38-39)
Human civilization, as far as we are aware, is the greatest accomplishment of life and reason. Mankind has a grasp and hold on his world in a way heretofore unseen. This accomplishment represents not the rejection of natural selection and its grip upon the future of the human race, but as the greatest level of success within that system. In a world of “survival of the fittest”, human beings in peaceful cooperation have proved to be the fittest, and thus, have survived and thrived.
As Mises stated above, the Social Darwinists and those of similar schools misunderstood the concept of natural selection. They also erred in its application to the human condition. It makes little sense to ask if the ideas of natural selection “should” be applied in modern society. Nobody asks if the idea of 2+2=4 “should” be accepted in society. Math is composed of positive facts, and is not subject to ethical considerations. Similarly, the mechanism of natural selection is a fact of life. It is the basis on which existence within this universe resides. There is no question of whether or not it “should” apply to society. It applies to society whether we like it to or not, just as 2+2=4 applies regardless of how our personal feelings on the matter.
The emergence of civilized society has the effect of making men less aggressive and more kind to each other. In a nomadic existence, those outside the tribe are always potential threats to your own survival. The domesticated and modern man has no such concerns about strangers whom he encounters. This effect is undeniable, but as we stated above, it is a corollary effect. But even in a morally elevated society, man has not escaped the iron grip of natural selection. He must always work to survive in his environment, and his fellow men are only one part of that environment. Having ethically harmonious relationships with those around him certainly improves this aspect of his environment, but is not enough to remove him from the need to survive altogether. He still must eat, drink, sleep, and have clothing and shelter if he is to live, regardless of the comradery he has with those around him.
The peace of modern society is not an incoherent perversion of nature. This peace has emerged in response to the challenges of the natural order. Because man was forced to survive in his environment, he employed his reason to aid him in his quest for survival. His reason led him to production and exchange with others as the best method to aid in his survival. As the marvels of human civilization can show, man’s reason has been amply vindicated. For millennia, the story of human beings was constant violence and distrust towards one another. It was only when this was exchanged for productive peace that the story of human civilization and triumph could begin.
