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But what about traits that are particularly well adapted, and there is yet no obvious path to that trait through mere mutation and survival of the fittest?
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I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection. -
On the Orgin of Species by Charles Darwin, Chapter III.
Darwin also used 'struggle for existence' not survival of the fittest. For more information see here:
Survival of the Fittest - Full explanation.
From the article:
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Survival of the fittest is a phrase which is a shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied by Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology of 1864, Spencer drew parallels to his ideas of economics with Charles Darwin's theories of evolution by what Darwin termed natural selection.
The phrase is a metaphor, not a scientific description; and it is not generally used by biologists, who almost exclusively prefer to use the phrase "natural selection".
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Evolutionary biologists criticize how the term is used by non-scientists and the connotations that have grown around the term in popular culture. The phrase also does not help in conveying the complex nature of natural selection and modern biologists prefer and almost exclusively use the term natural selection.
Indeed, in modern biology, the term fitness measures reproductive success and is not explicit about the specific ways in which organisms can be "fit" as in "having phenotypic characteristics which enhance survival and reproduction" (which was the meaning that Spencer had in mind).
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Of course the phase was even adapted by Darwin in later editions of his book but not without misgivings. It has of couse entered into common use with all the attendant misinterpertation(s) and application. I am fighting a losing battle but wanted to make this post anyway.
-Zeno, Atheist