Thomas Malthus

Capitalism has warped our understanding of ecology and life’s origins

The phrase “survival of the fittest” is so closely associated with Darwinism that many people assume Charles Darwin himself wrote it. He didn’t – it was foisted on him by a contemporary, Herbert Spencer. It is true, however, that in On the Origin of Species, Darwin emphasised competition as the dominant process behind life – but, like all of us, he was shaped by his environment.