Did Darwin write that not the strongest of the species survived, but the one who reacts better to changes?

A quote from the author of the theory of evolution is very popular in literature and the Internet. We checked whether Charles Darwin said like that.

In a canonical form, the statement attributed to Darwin looks like this: “It survives not the strongest and most intelligent, but the one who adapts best to changes.” It can be found on resources such as sites "Izvestia", "Vedomosti", Forbes, St. Petersburg State Economic University, "IBM - Russia", Facebook project account Think with Google And countless Collections of aphorisms. This quote in 2019 is the Russian -speaking page of the UN Official Twitter Congratulated scientist with the 210th anniversary. The statement is also popular in the West - for example, it is given by sites Children's Society of Great Britain And Arizona University.

Some sources They saythat the phrase was taken from the famous work of Charles Darwin "The Origin of Views." Today, almost everything that the British scientist has ever written, including letters and manuscripts, is available on the site Darwin Online. However, neither in the “origin of species” or in other works of Darwin this phrase cannot be found, although in many works the topic of natural selection is given a key role. Moreover, another authoritative resource supported by Cambridge University Site Darwin Correspondence Project, Turned on A quote among the six phrases that Darwin never pronounced.

Where did this phrase come from? According to research, the earliest mention of Darwin in connection with the aforementioned thought dates back to 1963, when the professor of management and marketing at the University of Louisiana Leon Megginson made a speech at the Congress of the Association of Social Sciences of the South-West. Among other things, Megginson said: “According to the Darwin“ origin of species ”, not the smartest of the species survives, not the strongest, but the kind that is best able to adapt and adapt to the changing environment in which it is located.” Soon, Megginson's speech was printed in the quarterly journal of the Association, and next year the author placed it in a slightly changed form in the journal Petroleum Management ("Oil Management"). And although Megginson did not use quotes, trying to convey his impression of classical work, he used the turn "as Charles Darwin says." Most likely, a similar form of presentation disoriented the readers of the magazine, because already in 1968, Kamal Sayeh made an accurate quote from Megginson with an epigraph to the first chapter of his book "Oil and Arabic regional development". That's just under the quote, Charles Darwin was listed. Already in the 1980s, the use of the "Darwin" quote became a matter PopularAnd these days have not passed the most authoritative resources.

How did it happen that Darwin’s pseudo -tocate still does not leave the arena? Apparently, the fact is that it is a little like two other famous thoughts attributed to the scientist. Firstly, on the phrase "in the struggle for existence, the most adapted win at the expense of their rivals, because they manage to better adapt to the environment." Darwin never spoke these words, and for the first time they meet in the presentation of Darwin's ideas in the book "Civilization past and real" (1962). Secondly, Darwin himself in the fifth edition of the "origin of species" as a synonym for natural selection used the concept Survival of the Fittest (“Survival of adapted”, sometimes also translated as “survival of the strongest”), which he borrowed from the work of the British philosopher Herbert Spencer "Principles of biology" (1864). At the same time, leading resources avoid identifying the aforementioned three quotes, if only because “adapted” is not necessarily “adapted”, and the “changing environment” is not identical to the “surrounding”, not counting other differences in statements.

One way or another, but the “quote” by Darwin in fact turns out to be a free statement of his views, the author of which is the Louisian professor of management and marketing Leon Megginson.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. It is not the Strongest of the Species that Survives But the Most Adaptable
2. The Evolution of A Misquotation