In Response to Andrew “Red in Tooth and Claw”

In Response to Andrew “Red in Tooth and Claw”

I enjoyed reading Andrew’s post, which was a comment direct towards Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer was quoted as saying, "every animal can maintain its own existence only by the incessant elimination of another's”. Andrew responded to this by giving the converse example of symbiosis, where a relationship between animals benefits both groups. I agree with Andrew in that symbiosis presents a counter example to Schopenhauer’s claim, but it seems that this conversation may be missing Schopenhauer’s central point. I think that Schopenhauer makes the statement quoted above primarily because of the lack of resources that exist in our universe. Naturally, it one animal obtains a certain resource, it means that another animal will have a lack of that resource. Accordingly, this is why he states that in order for every animal to maintain its existence, it needs to eliminate another’s in the process. It is my belief, unfortunately, that Schopenhauer was spot-on with this observation. We live in a society in which there are scarce resources and vast population of diverse individuals.