What is the struggle for existence?
Q: What is the struggle for existence?
A: The struggle for existence is a metaphor used to describe the competition between living things to survive. It was popularized by Charles Darwin in his book, Origin of Species.
Q: Who first coined the phrase "struggle for existence"?
A: The phrase "struggle for existence" was originally used by Thomas Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population.
Q: How did Darwin come across Malthus' ideas?
A: Darwin heard about Malthus' ideas from letters sent to him by his sister Fanny while he was voyaging on HMS Beagle. Fanny told him that Harriet Martineau, an early feminist writer, was promoting Malthus' ideas. Later, when he returned to London, Darwin met Martineau over dinner and began thinking more deeply about Malthus' work.
Q: What did Darwin realize about population growth?
A: Darwin realized that every species of living thing has the potential to increase geometrically (2, 4, 8, 16...), yet this pattern of population growth does not happen in practice due to competition between animals and limited resources such as food and water. He also noted that wars and disease can prevent populations from growing too quickly.
Q: What two additional ideas did Darwin combine with the struggle for existence?
A: In addition to noting competition between organisms as part of the struggle for existence, Darwin combined this idea with two other concepts - that some organisms are better suited than others to succeed in this struggle; and that characteristics must be at least partly inherited through heredity - which led him to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Q: How did Wallace come up with a similar conclusion as Darwin's?
A: Wallace independently came up with a similar conclusion as Darwins after recovering from malaria in East Indies and sending an essay containing the phrase "The life of wild animals is a struggle for existence"to him 1858. He had not known much about Darwins ideas but reached it from one of later editions of Malthuss Essay on population
