December 21, 2004
Word of the Day (Wordsmith.org, 12/21/04)
Darwinian (dar-WIN-ee-uhn) adjective [...]"P&G traditionally was known as a conservative fortress, pitting teams
of employees against each other in a Darwinian struggle that sometimes
seemed to place a higher priority on winning within P&G than beating
competition or appealing to consumers."
Cliff Peale; P&G Loses Stodginess to Build Profits; The Cincinnati
Enquirer (Ohio); Dec 13, 2004."(Lieutenant Harms) also observes subtler, almost Darwinian maneuvers by
combat veterans to form teams of stronger soldiers to boost their chances
of survival."
Ann Scott Tyson; For Army, It's Operation Stretch; The Christian Science
Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Dec 9, 2004.
One notes with hilarity that the sentences used to illustrate Darwinian share a common, and revealing, trait. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 21, 2004 7:57 AM
Well, the obvious confusion is the commmon mistake of saying "Darwinian " when what the speaker means is "Spencerian." Despite what the Nazis throught, the kind of survival of the fittest now usually described as "Darwinian" is survival of the fittest ways of thinking and acting, not necessarily the same thing as survival of the fittest organism..
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 22, 2004 4:51 AM