Michaels - Quicklet on Richard Dawkins the Selfish Gene

In a 2006 interview with Meet the Author , the year when The Selfish Gene celebrated its 30th anniversary, Richard Dawkins had this to say:

If I had to write it again, I wouldnt write it very differently. It has been described as a revolutionary book, in one respect it is. But its only a revolutionary way in looking at orthodox Darwinian natural selection. It helps to look at it in this revolutionary way. It could equally well have been called the Altruistic Animal, because if you have selfish genes, which only means that natural selection works at the level of the gene; if you have selfish genes, then you may have altruistic individuals. And thats what the book is about.

What Dawkins describes as revolutionary, others have construed as controversial. When The Selfish Gene was first published in 1976, it created a number of waves within the study evolutionary biology, largely dominated by Darwinian doctrine. (One could say it made a splash in the gene pool.) If Darwins idea of natural selection was based on the concept of survival of the fittest, then why does altruism exist between individuals? Why arent all living things selfish in a cut-throat battle for survival? Dawkins strove to explain altruism in The Selfish Gene , with the argument that altruistic behavior can be explained through the selfishness of our genes. How people misinterpreted this however, was essentially that we are all born selfishthat our selfish genes give way to selfish behavior in individuals, and through this scientific reasoning, legitimizes it. Dawkins argues that individuals are selfish machines, programmed to do whats best for our genes. But what is best for our genes, isnt necessarily the best for the individual carrying the genes. In the example of a beehive, a bee will sting any threat to the hive, at the cost of its own life. Clearly this isnt whats best for the individual bee. However, it is whats best for its genes because the bee works to save many more individuals who share the same genes. In sacrificing itself to protect a hive full of its genes, the bee behaves altruistically as an individual, but is still selfish at the gene level. In the introduction to the 30th anniversary edition, Dawkins addresses the misunderstandings and criticisms generated since its first publication:

The Selfish Gene has been criticized for anthropomorphic personification and this too needs an explanation, if not an apology. I employ two levels of personification: of genes, and of organisms. Personification of genes really ought not to be a problem, because no sane person thinks DNA molecules have conscious personalities, and no sensible reader would impute such a delusion to an author. (x)

Well, thats quite an apology.

While Dawkins wasnt the first person to suggest genes as the units upon which natural selection acts, the The Selfish Gene was the first to present gene-centric evolutionary biology in a very accessible way. Over one million copies of The Selfish Gene have been sold since its first publication, with a second edition published in 1989, and a thirtieth anniversary edition in 2006. The Selfish Gene also has been translated into over twenty languages. Its relevance over three decades has all but diminished through its influence over evolutionary biology, but also, in popular culture. Ever wonder how the word meme came about? This guy, in this book.

Clinton Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, ethologist (a sub-topic of zoology) professor and prolific author. He is considered among the worlds leading scientific minds and perhaps the most famous living evolutionary biologist.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya on March 26, 1941, Dawkins lived in Africa until he was eight years old, after which his parents, agricultural civil servants in the British Colonial Service, returned to England. Dawkins was raised Anglican, but gave up religion in his mid-teens after learning about evolution. He found explanation through science, citing Darwinism as a far superior explanation to the idea of the universe having one designer. He is equally famous, if not more so, for his strong advocacy for atheism. Dawkins has published numerous books and articles on both subjects, and considers his work in science complimentary to his ideals in atheism and education.

Dawkins graduated from Balliol College, Oxford University, in 1962 with a degree in zoology. He continued to work with Nobel Laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen at Oxford and the University of California Berkeley, receiving his M.A. and D.Phil. He became an assistant professor of zoology at Berkeley for two years before returning to Oxford in 1970, as a fellow of New College, where he became a lecturer and then a reader. (In the U.K. and the Commonwealth, a reader is a position for distinguished senior academics who are leaders in their field of study. Kind of a big deal.) From 1995-2008, he served as the Simonyi Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, during which he received numerous awards and honors.

Previously twice-divorced, Richard Dawkins is married to Lalla Ward, and has a daughter, Juliet Emma Dawkins with his second wife, Eve Barham. Dawkins first wife was fellow ethnologist Mariam Stamp. Forever an Oxford chap, Dawkins mainly focuses on his own writing these days, but continues to be a prominent leader in his fields of evolutionary biology, atheism and education. His most recent book, The Magic of Reality: How We Know Whats Really True (2011) caters to a young audience, dispelling common myths behind big questions such as, Who were the first man and woman? through scientific explanation. (Ten bucks that its NOT Adam and Eve.)

The selfish gene is Darwins theory, expressed in a way that Darwin did not choose but whose aptness, I should like to link, he would instantly have recognized and delighted in.

In order to understand Dawkins, you have to understand Darwin, or at the very least, have some familiarity with him. Although Dawkins provides clear explanations to his terminology, he assumes his readers have some base knowledge of evolution. Written with three kinds of readers in mind, the layman, the expert and the student, Dawkin strives simultaneously to make his claims accessible, progressive to his field and entice those for continued study. (xxi) Building off of Darwins ideas and the gene-centric views of R.A. Fisher, W.D. Hamilton and G. C. Williams, to put it simply, Dawkins wanted to explain that there are two ways to view natural selection, from the genes perspective and the individuals. They are both equivalent; both true. In The Selfish Gene , Dawkins focuses on social behavior, to help correct the unconscious group-selectionism that then pervaded popular Darwinism, during the time in which Dawkins developed these theories. (xvii)

So how should we read The Selfish Gene as academic text, quirky science book or legit lit? Perhaps as all three! In the Preface to the First Edition , Dawkin tells his readers that it should be read almost as though it were science fiction, that its meant to appeal to the imagination. (Its not science fiction though, just want to make sure were good on that.)

While the chapter-by-chapter summary and commentary section will go more in depth, the main themes Dawkins tackles are, as according to fellow evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers:

Concepts of altruistic and selfish behavior

Genetical definition of self-interest

Evolution of aggressive behavior

Kinship theory

Sex Ratio theory

Reciprocal altruism

Deceit

Natural selection of sex differences