science

Law of the jungle

Law of the jungle is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Law of the jungle rather than just read about it. In short: "The law of the jungle" (also called jungle law) is an expression that has come to describe a scenario where "anything goes". The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Law of the Jungle as "the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival".

Key takeaways

Law of the jungle belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Law of the jungle to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Law of the jungle from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The law of the jungle" (also called jungle law) is an expression that has come to describe a scenario where "anything goes". The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Law of the Jungle as "the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival". The phrase was introduced in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 work The Jungle Book, where it described the self-supportive behaviour of wolves in a pack.

The Jungle Book In his 1894 novel The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling uses the term to describe an actual set of legal codes used by wolves and other animals in the jungles of India. Chapter Two of The Second Jungle Book (1895) includes a poem explaining the Law of the Jungle, as known to the wolves and taught to their offspring. It begins:

Mowgli learns this law from his years of living with wolves, and Baloo, the bear character, is a "revered teacher of the Law of the Jungle". For Mowgli, the law pertains to brotherhood: "I was born in the Jungle. I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle, and there is not one of the pack from whose pads I have not plucked a thorn. Surely they are my brothers." According to Laura Stevenson, the law should be read in a pastoral context, "with its carefully thought out rules of mutual survival; they are thus infinitely more civilized than the greedy, superstitious villagers, who are willing to kill Mowgli". That same law also forbids killing humans, "not out of compassion or sportsmanship", but because killing a human means more humans will come with weapons to kill the animals. The latter aspect is grounds for John McBratney to argue that the law which seems so far removed from "the white man's law" (the British Raj) "is in fact bounded and permeated by the Raj." In the 2016 Disney remake of their 1967 animated film The Jungle Book, itself based on the novel, the wolves' poem is described by Baloo as a piece of propaganda.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Law of the jungle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Law of the jungle claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Law of the jungle before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Law of the jungle ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Law of the jungle

In research: Law of the jungle appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Law of the jungle in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Law of the jungle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890s neologisms, 1890s quotations, 1894 introductions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Law of the jungle outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Law of the jungle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Law of the jungle means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Law of the jungle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Law of the jungle in simple terms?

Why does Law of the jungle matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Law of the jungle?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Law of the jungle.