“They refuse the mere fact of competing, that is, of needing to share out a resource with the motive of competitiveness or readiness to quarrel.”

—  Mary Midgley

Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979). 132.
Context: Selection does not work by cutthroat competition between individuals, but by favouring whatever behavior is useful to the group. People with crude notions of "Darwinism" make an intriguing blunder here. They refuse the mere fact of competing, that is, of needing to share out a resource with the motive of competitiveness or readiness to quarrel.

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Mary Midgley 42
British philosopher and ethicist 1919–2018

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