Pros: Clear explanation of many aspects of genetics and evolution
Cons: An unnecessarily harsh and confrontational attitude toward other views
The Bottom Line: The new Genesis:
In the beginning “---the primeval soup provided conditions in which molecules could make copies of themselves, and the replicators took over.”
gaviidae's Full Review: Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene
“The Selfish Gene” was published originally in 1976, the first of several major books on evolution and genetics by Richard Dawkins. The book was updated in 1989, the version I’m reviewing, but the original eleven chapters were left unchanged with updates incorporated in revised and expanded end notes, in two new chapters, and in a new Preface to the 1989 Edition. Thus, it is crucially important for the reader to flip to the end notes every few pages to get the new thoughts and clarifications found only there, a little bit of nuisance but well worth the trouble. The book has sold over a million copies, as has each of his other six books, and Dawkins is the recipient of several very prestigious academic awards. In 1989 he was the Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford.
Dawkins is not burdened with any excessive modesty about the importance of evolution science or his contribution to that field. His first chapter is called “Why Are People?” and the second sentence says:
“If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they will ask, in order to assess the level of our civilization, is: ‘Have they discovered evolution yet?’”
His book is focused especially on the biological basis of selfish and altruistic behavior, including our loving and hating, fighting and cooperating, giving and stealing, our greed and our generosity. He acknowledges three prior books by evolution scientists that address these same subjects and says of them:
“The trouble with these books is that their authors got it totally and utterly wrong. They got it wrong because they misunderstand how evolution works. They made the erroneous assumption that the important thing in evolution is the species (or the group), rather than the individual (or the gene).”
That difference in perspective continues to this day, and perhaps is another kind of scientific duality, each having it’s usefulness and its shortcomings, like the wave-particle duality of quantum physics.
Dawkins argues that evolution is a matter of the fight for survival among competing “replicators,” the first form of life to come into existence, a molecule formed by random chance in a “primordial soup” of chemicals, a molecule that had the unique capability of replicating itself; then spontaneously developed the capability to combine with others, and then to construct larger entities to help them survive and replicate, entities he calls “survival vehicles” for the replicating genes. They are, of course organisms, plants and animals, whose characteristics and activities are determined by how effectively they enable genes to replicate and survive.
The replicators must have the ability to replicate accurately but NOT PERFECTLY. An occasional imperfect replication gives rise to a mutation, and if the mutation aids the ability of the gene that created it to replicate and survive, then the mutation quickly spreads throughout the population. The replicators, i.e. genes, have no purpose or conscious preferences; just the blind need to replicate.
Different aggregations of replicators formed in the “primordial soup,” and many kinds of “survival machines” came into existence, each having it’s own novel means of facilitating the further replication of the genes that built it, leading to today’s biodiversity and the existence of the incredibly complex survival vehicle, the “lumbering robot” called Homo Sapiens!
Dawkins provides many examples of both selfish and altruistic behavior observed in animals, and defines an analytical technique to determine whether and how altruistic behavior might have been biologically determined by providing a superior “strategy” to enhance gene replication. Altruistic behavior is most commonly observed in the behavior of parents toward their offspring, and to a lesser degree between siblings. A method of ranking the closeness of genetic relationship is discussed, and it is shown that altruistic behavior is more common between those who are more closely related.
I was hoping to gain insight into the relationships and physical mapping between genes, chromosomes, DNA molecules, and phenotypes, and Dawkins does provide some insight. His explanations are satisfying in some respects, but disappointing as well, probably reflecting the fact that it is enormously complicated, and perhaps not that clearly understood at the time the book was written. He provides a very lucid explanation of how the random selection of genes occurs in the reproduction process for both sexual and asexual organisms, as well as a few of the mechanisms by which new genetic units, and new phenotypes, come about. He wants to make his case that the gene is the fundamental unit for the process of natural selection, and admits that his way of defining what a gene is assures that will be the case. I guess one could characterize that as intellectual consistency, but it seems a bit circular.
After several chapters of these basics we reach a chapter on aggression, and the introduction of the concept of an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS), and the use of game theory to determine which of several alternate strategies might be ESS. The point is made that survival of the fittest is a special case of the broader concept of survival of the stable. In this case, “strategy” means a biologically preprogrammed behavioral practice. An ESS is defined as a strategy which, if adopted by most members of a population, cannot be bettered by any other strategy. When an ESS has been achieved selection will penalize any deviation from it.
Many examples are discussed, for example a species with two available aggression strategies characterized as hawk, always fight fiercely, and dove, always threaten but never fight, and the use of game theory models and mathematics to determine how these characteristics will be distributed in the population of that species. Throughout the book this technique is used by the author, always describing in words and examples the mathematical relationships involved, seldom resorting to equations or mathematical notation.
In a chapter called “Family Planning” Dawkins discusses many observed variations in how different species make the balance between “bearing” and “caring” as a strategy to maximize reproduction and survival; i.e. how much time and energy to devote to bearing more offspring versus caring for existing offspring. Another chapter is devoted to the “Battle Of The Generations,” the question of whether a mother should give more attention to a favorite offspring, or divide her attention equally among all her offspring. This leads to consideration of the battle between siblings to selfishly gain more parental attention. Examples are discussed of some really diabolical strategies of some species in this competition.
On to the “Battle Of The Sexes,” and a discussion of the biologically determined differences between male and female behavior. The reasons for the evolution of sexual species is explained in terms of the selfish gene premise----it provides a superior means for replication and survival for those genes that built survival machines that procreate sexually. Many issues and many species are discussed, but I’d like to mention one particularly interesting point.
Among sexual species, every female would agree that a hard male is good to find. That being the case, Dawkins asks, why is there no species in which the male has a pen!s supported by bone tissue, thereby assuring perpetual readiness for sexual activity? He answers his own question thus: the female of the species is genetically preprogrammed to select a male who is the most vigorous and healthy, who is likely to have the best capability to do his part of the process of providing food, building shelter, etc., as well as fathering offspring. The physical ability of a prospective spouse to achieve and sustain the necessary rigidity through engorgement of otherwise soft tissue is a primary (and ESS) means to help her make this crucial determination! Should a bone-supported pen!s come about through mutation, the possessor would probably be no more popular with most females than one wearing an artificial pen!s, and the mutation would quickly become extinct!
Game theory is used to evaluate the likely success of strategies of coy versus fast females, and faithful versus philandering males, and how such strategies are likely to be distributed in a population under different conditions.
A chapter called “You Scratch My Back; I’ll Ride On Yours” discusses strategies of symbiosis and parasites, cooperation and reciprocal altruism. It is the final chapter of the part of the book dealing with genetics, and concludes with this rather tantalizing thought:
“Money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism.”
That thought seems an inviting subject for further speculation and analysis, but Dawkins leaves it at that, saying:
“Tempting as it is, I am no better at such speculation than the next man, and I leave the reader to entertain himself.”
Going on to the final chapter of the original 1976 book, Dawkins introduces the concept of “Memes: The New Replicators.” There are many things unique about the human species among other “survival machines,” but the greatest difference is summed up by Dawkins in the word “culture.” He devotes a chapter to making the case that cultural transmission can be regarded as analogous to genetic transmission, and can therefore be thought of as giving rise to another form of evolution.
The new “soup” is culture, and it is transmitted by a form of replication. He suggests the name “meme” as a unit of replication, analogous to the gene. To define what he means by a meme he says:
“I appeal to the same verbal trick as I used---to define genetic units. The gene---is a length of chromosome with just sufficient copying fidelity to serve as a viable unit of natural selection. If a single phrase of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony can be abstracted from the---whole symphony and used as the call-sign of a---broadcasting station, it deserves to be called one meme.”
The first of the new chapters for the 1989 edition is called “Nice Guys Finish First,” in which Dawkins provides an extensive discussion of game theory, the game called Prisoner’s Dilemma and its application to a wide range of social, economic, defense, and biological subjects. It’s a deceptively simple game based on a choice between cooperation and betrayal. He uses it to make the point that nice guys CAN win!
The last chapter, called the “Long Reach Of The Gene,” introduces the idea that genes have effects that can extend far outside the physical boundaries of the “survival vehicle,” the organism built by the collection of its genes. An example is the biologically determined activity of beavers to build dams, create a lake and seriously change the surroundings considerably outside the physical body of the beaver. It is a brief summary of the concept he explained fully in his book, “The Extended Phenotype,” which Dawkins describes as his pride and joy.
Considering the complexities of the subject matter, Dawkins has a very readable and entertaining style, and his deep conviction about his subject is apparent. He often critiques the written opinions of his peers, and is very unforgiving in his criticism. But he reserves a special harshness for his condemnation of religion and faith. Regarding the question “What is man?” he says:
“---all attempts to answer that question before 1859 are worthless, and we will be better off if we ignore them completely.”
He says a LOT about his disdain for “blind faith,” including:
“It is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a mental illness. It leads people to believe whatever it is so strongly that---they are prepared to kill and to die for it without the need for any further justification.”
“Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them against fear, if they believe that a martyr’s death will send them straight to heaven. What a weapon! Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb.”
Some would argue that this is an extraordinarily one-sided, even warped view, that religious faith is a SOURCE of pity, forgiveness, and decent human feelings. We have certainly had plenty of evidence that blind faith CAN be exploited in exactly the manner Dawkins describes, to induce people to incredibly evil and inhuman acts---but also to extraordinary acts of compassion!
It’s a great book, packed with interesting and unconventional points of view, and very readable technical details about genetics, heredity, and evolution. It’s unfortunate that Dawkins is so confrontational with those who see the world differently, whether in science or in other fields. It becomes understandable why people of deep religious convictions feel threatened by evolution, and are determined in a misguided effort to formulate a credible alternate “science” of human origins. There is no need, in my opinion, for there to be such a harsh, basically false, dichotomy, between the extremists of BOTH religion and science.
The textbook, Selfish Gene, Anniversary Edition, by Richard Dawkins, available in Paperback. Published by: Oxford University Press. Edition: . IS...More at Textbooks.com
In his internationally bestselling, now classic volume, Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. This anniversary edition reta...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.