A Philosophical Analysis of the Original Version of Natural Selection

Abstract

The original version of Darwin’s natural selection theory, or the idea “survival of the fittestâ€, is unfalsifiable because of its circular definition of “the survival†and “the fittestâ€. In order for a theory to state the relationship between two ideas, such as “those who survived†and “those who are the fittest to the environmentâ€, these very ideas should be defined independently. Otherwise it become statement like “all bachelors are unmarriedâ€. Therefore, build on Popper’s falsificationism, I propose that a theory is scientific if and only if it cannot be justified purely in virtue of first-order or second-order logic.