Tentative Response - Darwin

2. Compare ‘natural selection’ and ‘selection under domestication’. In what ways are they the same, in what ways different?

Natural selection is the process by which an organism with genetics that improve its chances for survival in its environment tend to produce more offspring, thus increasing the frequency of that advantageous trait in the species’ population. The “end goal” of evolution is to produce a population of a species with the traits that are the most optimal for reproductive survival. Selection under domestication on the other hand, is more concerned with choosing the traits in a certain species’ population that is desired by humans at a given point in time. In both types of selection, desired traits are being opted for. Darwin says the following about human driven selection versus natural selection: “How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently how poor will his products be, compared with those accumulated by nature during whole geological periods. Can we wonder, then, that nature’s productions should be far “truer” in character than man’s productions…” Darwin clearly shows his preference for natural selection, which is able to select for precise, targeted traits for the environment, whereas humans can only make their best guess, not even necessarily based on their environment in the cases of breeding livestock and eugenics.