PART III 



CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION 



CHAPTER XV 

 STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE AND RIVALRY 



i . Biological Struggle for Existence 



THE struggle for existence may be defined as the at- 

 tempt to remain alive, or technically to ' survive,' on the 

 part of an organism. As a necessary factor in Darwin- 

 ism, the conception involves the further restrictions, which, 

 however, are not so generally made clear: (i) that the or- 

 ganism which survives is already, or is still, capable of propa- 

 gating in the manner normal to its species ; and (2) that it 

 finds opportunity to do so ; failing either of these condi- 

 tions, the case would not be one of successful struggle for 

 existence, from the point of view of the theory of descent. 1 



Three clearly distinguishable forms of struggle for 

 existence may be recognized: 2 



1 Darwin says (quoted by Bosanquet) : I use this term (struggle for exis- 

 tence) in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being 

 on another, and including, what is more important, not only the life of the 

 individual, but success in leaving progeny. 



2 Cf. the writer's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, arts. 'Existence 

 (Struggle for)' and 'Rivalry,' where the following distinctions are made out. 

 Distinctions among different forms of struggle are made by Pearson in The 

 Grammar of Science, 2d ed., p. 364, who distinguishes ' struggle of individ- 

 ual man against individual man, struggle of individual society against indi- 



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