The Selfish Gene

Book Description

Critics

• A good book and the Good Book

  These days, Richard Dawkins is so much a popular spokesman for enlightenment values, a voluble and unembarrassable critic of religious belief that it might be as well to remember what it was that gave him his public eminence in the first place. It’s ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

• A good book and the Good Book

  These days, Richard Dawkins is so much a popular spokesman for enlightenment values, a voluble and unembarrassable critic of religious belief that it might be as well to remember what it was that gave him his public eminence in the first place. It’s ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

9 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  Interesting even when wrong

  A thought provoking book, very well written, it does a great job of presenting some basic but interesting ideas in biology, genetics and game theory to the non-specialist. Let me put this straight: this is not a book about finding a gene that is responsible for selfishness or "inhumanity" (that's al ... (continue)

  A thought provoking book, very well written, it does a great job of presenting some basic but interesting ideas in biology, genetics and game theory to the non-specialist. Let me put this straight: this is not a book about finding a gene that is responsible for selfishness or "inhumanity" (that's already been done, just take Bush DNA in stock, and remember to take away the idiocy gene;) it is not a book about moral philosophy, it is not a book against religion and it won't make you feel better if you are an egoistic as*#*le. It is just a lively written exposition of the workings of evolution and the subtle interactions that living creatures have among themselves. The focus of the book is on shifting the idea of evolution from species evolution and individual animal evolution to gene evolution. To be true, at the elementary level the game of survival, mutation and evolution is played by the genes and not the organisms, and this is a very important and interesting idea to behold. Sometimes Dawkins gets a bit carried away by his "communicative genius" calling animal bodies "lumbering robots built by the genes" but at least he manages to catch the reader attention vey effectively. I personally don't understand his sectarian hostility towars group selection. To me, species, group, individual, kin and gene selection are all valid, they just tend to be the dominant force in different time/space domains. The only downside of the book is the smell of the petty disputes of the "specialists" in the field, which seemed to be quarreling more on words and way of seeing things than on real, sound, genuine ideas. This is the unmistakable sign of a stagnant field. I think that what makes some religious people snarl at this book is not its main idea (evolution is played at he gene level, and genes that are around today must have done well in diffusing at the expenses of others) but the very natural explanation it gives of selfishness and altruism (they help a single gene or a pool of similar or identical genes to survive and spread), something that religious people see as too "God-related" to be subject to biological explanations... Overall a a great book that will spark your interest in biology, genetics, ethology, sociobiology and even apparently unrelated fields like game theory.

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  The Teach said on Nov 3, 2009 | 1 feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Usually, I won't read a science book with 30+ year history. Long history is a credit for a friction, but not in the fast-moving field of science. But this one is quite different.

  The author suggests that we and all other organism are the "vehicles" of the "replicator", the immortal gene. Think ... (continue)

  Usually, I won't read a science book with 30+ year history. Long history is a credit for a friction, but not in the fast-moving field of science. But this one is quite different.

  The author suggests that we and all other organism are the "vehicles" of the "replicator", the immortal gene. Think about this, although organism live and die, but the gene keeps passing on. We mortal are actually the carrier of the gene inside. And, I suppose it hint on the reason why we "vehicles" has to die. The environment is fast changing, the gene need to invest into different vehicles, have some experiment (mutation) and also swopping (sexual reproduction).

  But gene does not have plan or consciousness, what we see the end result now is the product of both gene's selfish surviving intention plus the Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS). There are some strategy that will give the best results for all, however, unstable, and will easily be turned upside down with some few mutation. So, what end up will be the ESS, that both stable and get good (not best) results.

  Another "replicator" could be Meme. Well, a cultural replicator that could survive as long as our culture persists.

  Another interesting thought experiment is the Prisoner Dilemma. If the players know that there will be a long, unlimited round of play, and they can recognize each other, the most sucessful stratgy, suprisingly, is not those very nasty cunning strategy, but the simple and "nice" Tit for Tat. Tit for Tat is nice since it never initiate a war, always forgiving if you "correct" and turn back to constructive and won't be envious of your gain or sucess.

  If a player is always nice, he will be exploited by those nasty players. But Tit for Tat will help himself from being exploited, and also coorperate with each other so that all Win.

  We don't necessarily playing zero-sum game. The real life is a lot more complicated than a football game.

  Being nice will pay.

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  Samsara said on Dec 1, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  A Seminal And Challenging Text On The Nature Of Evolution

  How does one review one of the most influential books of the last century in the field of evolutionary biology? That it is a superb text on evolution is unquestioned. Anyone who reads this book will be enlightened as to the finer details of how evolution works and what it is. There is hardly a finer ... (continue)

  How does one review one of the most influential books of the last century in the field of evolutionary biology? That it is a superb text on evolution is unquestioned. Anyone who reads this book will be enlightened as to the finer details of how evolution works and what it is. There is hardly a finer book to teach one about evolution. If there is a single text you choose to learn about modern biology and the mechanisms of life, then look no further.

  So, allow me to point to one or two features of The Selfish Gene that especially impressed me. Much has been said about the "selfish" genes described by Dawkins. It caused a proper stir. It still does. Surely Dawkins was diminishing the value of people and life by emphasizing "selfish" genes? People were outraged at being chased from their special little place in the universe, much like the reaction in Darwin's own day. They apparently did not realize that selfish genes do not have to result in selfish people. This insight was a profound one for me and well worth the cover price.

  At the close of the book, Dawkins touches on the idea of Universal Darwinism. Evolution proceeds by replicators. The replicator (DNA in our case) is the most fundamental and powerful concept in the universe: after all it resulted in life. But Dawkins notes that DNA is no longer alone - there is another replicator on the block: the meme. Universal Darwinism proceeds via evolution but the replicator need not be a DNA molecule. Anything that replicates with variation - even ideas that transmit themselves from mind to mind like a meme - and has a competitive struggle for replication must inevitably result in evolution of some sort. Hence memes can explain the evolution of culture, and perhaps much, much more. Dawkins goes even further and asks whether there can be other sorts of replicators, too. What undreamed of wonders they might sculpt in our universe! I have a notion that this idea of Dawkins - almost an afterthought near the end of the book and itself a meme - could be his greatest contribution of all, a truly profound insight into the condition of the universe. We shall see.

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  Ramnagel said on Apr 28, 2009 | Add your feedback

• Don't know why .... It is the second books from the same author that I have to abandon ... I did try hard to read on. But the topic did not touch me.

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  Waleswong said on Nov 5, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Un MUST!

  Credo nel '76 abbia aperto gli occhi a molti. Se volete farvi aprire gli occhi leggetelo anche voi! Cambiera' il modo in cui vedete gli animali, le piante e l'uomo stesso, insomma tutte le "survival machines" come le chiama Dawkins:

  "They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind...they ... (continue)

  Credo nel '76 abbia aperto gli occhi a molti. Se volete farvi aprire gli occhi leggetelo anche voi! Cambiera' il modo in cui vedete gli animali, le piante e l'uomo stesso, insomma tutte le "survival machines" come le chiama Dawkins:

  "They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind...they have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines [...]"

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  Fabrizio Abbinante said on Mar 8, 2010 | 2 feedbacks

• 

  Very interesting book and changed the way I thought about living things and biology. I wish I had read this earlier.

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  JAYSONHOOGY said on Feb 14, 2010 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 368 Pages
• Edition: 2
• ISBN-10: 0192860925
• ISBN-13: 9780192860927
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Pub date: Oct 25, 1990
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover and Others
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, 和書, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Nederlandse Boeken, Česká kniha, Polskie Książki, Ελληνικά βιβλία

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