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Summary: Even if you think you know the theory, the book is still fun
Review: The "selfish gene" has been used and explained in many other books already, and therefore people might feel they are already familiar with the concept and don't need to read the original book. However, there is more in this book than in the summaries read elsewhere, and especially the various examples might make this seemingly alien concept more clear. In a way it is a mirror to a part of you that you might not want to see.
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Summary: A unique perspective on evolution
Review: The Selfish Gene presents a new (to me anyways) view of evolution - from the perspective of the gene rather than the individual. I found this approach to be thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking, so much so that I immediately ordered two more Dawkins books. I originally found the book through a recommendation by one of my favorite authors, the late Douglas Adams. He didn't steer me wrong.Although I'm a technical person, I'm not a biologist (my training is limited to 8th grade biology class). The book did a good job of refreshing my limited knowledge of genetics and evolution while simultaneously presenting a wholly new view of the subject. The original was published in 1976, while this version is a 1989 update. Most of the text is identical, but with extensive endnotes and two new chapters. The endnotes elaborate on, clarify, or update the original text with new examples, updates to the theories, and corrections of errors. They required constant flipping back and forth, but I found them to be very entertaining and a good supplement to the original material.
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Summary: Unraveling the DNA Mystery
Review: Dawkins is a fine reader-friendly writer who carefully uses logic and the mathematics of probabilty - in an easy way - to deduce the philosophical goal of the DNA genes found in nature. It is very thought provoking if you are the sort who like to have your thoughts provoked. This is a companion book to his Blind Watch-maker book that examines the DNA goal from a different viewpoint.
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Summary: Mean Gene
Review: As I read this gem of a book, I wonder why not enough books on sciences are as elegantly written and clearly elaborated for the general reader as Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. This book ranks highly both as a popular science literature and as a key to a whole new paradigm in evolutionary biology. As conceded by the author, the book is entirely about animal behaviour (plans included) from a gene-centric point of view. At the end of the book, my whole perspective of evolution theory has been entirely enlarged. Dawkins brilliantly explains in the first few chapters, the origins, workings and behaviour of the DNA-the replicators responsible for all of life on Earth. Genes (as used in his title), made up of DNA, are explained as unit small enough to last for a many generations. Thus, selfish gene as used in the title is simply the genetic unit that is concerned with only its own welfare and promotes its propagation at the expense of its rivals (the alleles). Dawkins uses metaphors and analogies in explaining the intricate workings of the genes. In the next few chapters, there are elaborate yet clear discussions on the roles of genes in parenthood, families, mutualism, relationships between sexes, altruism, selfishness and others. The one concept that Dawkins regularly emphasises is that genes use our bodies (he calls them survival machines) to reproduce and not the other way round. This itself is a revolutionary thinking. One of the most interesting discussions is on the concept of evolutionary stable state (ESS, formulated by Maynard Smith). The author uses simple game theory to predict the behaviours that give rise to a stable state (equilibrium) and thus is favoured by the natural selection. The author also proposes a new kind of replicator-Memes. It too is revolutionary and has since sparked off new research on such a replicator. Memes is the replicator which imitates ideas, tunes, fashion, philosophies etc. It is the smallest unit of human culture. Equally refreshing is the last chapter, which deals with the concept of the extended phenotype. The central theory is that a behaviour aims to propagate the genes for that behaviour, whether or not the genes reside in the body that effects the behaviour. It means that genes in certain kinds of parasites or insects can affect the behaviour of other animals. Dawkins gives examples to illustrate his concept (but given that it is only a chapter, only a few examples are given). It has perplexed biologists as the concept means that chemical reactions (triggered by genes) in a body can affect the chemical reactions (leading to the desired behaviour) in other bodies. The Selfish Gene is a beautiful book, thoroughly thoughtful and insightful. The author is a trained ethologist and many of his examples are about behaviours of animals. This book is a refreshingly new look at evolution from the genetic point of view. Although there are many other factors like ecology, geology, chance and even plenty other theories like kin selection, symbiogenesis, to explain evolution, I am very persuaded by Dawkins' selfish gene theory. . This book is a definite text book for anyone even aiming to study evolution.
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Summary: Meme Central
Review: The book is generally difficult to read because it is very detailed and filled with examples. But other readers might like that, so I only deduct one star. So, why all stars? Namely . . . the chapter on memes, i.e. infectious ideas. This concept has extended many theories in the fields of psychology, biology and culture. While criticized widely, I find the theory that ideas spread like viruses very true -- of course, I'm a microbiologist. This book was the first time, I know of, where the meme idea was presented. The word, meme, was coined by Dawkins in this book.
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Summary: A Genetics Primer second to none
Review: This is the best kind of popular science book, the kind in which your questions as reader are (on the whole) answered straightaway, and many qualifications of the theory, which Dawkins himself brings up, are as a matter of course taken into consideration. Dawkins freely admits when his conjectures might turn out wrong, or the evidence he marshals inconclusive but pertinent to his point. In short, a book which respects the reader's intelligence as few do. Although there is still great controversy over group or individual natural selection versus selection at the level of the gene, this shouldn't trouble us--it seems a philosophical/semantic distinction which doesn't touch Dawkins' basic argument. The genes survive in offspring, the individual doesn't. He is always guided metaphorically by his title. Or, as Dawkins puts it, "This book should be called...'The slightly selfish big bit of chromosome and even more selfish little bit of chromosome.'" His point is that the smallest units are the oldest (there are a lot of "free riders" which have been maximally effective at passing themselves through the generations). The tough part is explaining the "phase transition" which occurred in the primeval soup 1) from organic molecules to structured & integrated proto-organisms (Dawkins only goes as far as saying the primitive molecules must have accidentally locked together), then 2) developed a way to cheat the second law of thermodynamics (viz, a form of metabolism) AND were able to reproduce themselves either 1) at the same time, 2) developed these processes independently, or 3) achieved a synergy with other organisms. Manfred Eigen's work on the line separating the inorganic from the organic has filled in some gaps here. "Selfish" has connotations of conscious intention and will, but this anthropocentric aspect of the descriptive term don't really enter into the picture Dawkins is painting. The "selfishness" resides in the global behavior of the entity created by DNA in its competing for resources and a mate; the genes exert no direct influence on behavior. There's nothing about morality human or otherwise whatsoever in the story Dawkins tells; application of "moral" terms would constitute a Rylean "category error", because morality presupposes consciousness. Yet most of the activity animals do is ultimately oriented towards the preservation of the "immortal coils" whose simple goal long ago stabilized to maximize accurate copies of themselves, which themselves can live long enough to reproduce again. What Dawkins does is apply game theory--in its barest form, tables of strategies--to explain the possible avenues through which the living creatures living today might have come to exist--the survivors of millions of years of unfortunate experiments by mother Nature. Although after reading Dawkins's brilliant and persuasive argument, you may come to find there's no maybe about it.
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Summary: scientific explanation of why the world is evil
Review: all observers all through out time said basically the same thing: humans are corruptable. From bible writers, to philosophers, to ethologist and biologists. But now it is scientifically explained why humans are corruptable, it is because of the "selfish gene". The "selfish gene" would make us tend more towards things that are beneficial to our selves even if it would go against the happiness of other people, thus creating the condition among humans that is known as evil. In the world of the selfish gene and blind physical forces, some people will get hurt, some people will get lucky, and you wouldn't find any meaning, any purpose, any reason for it, just blind indifference.
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Summary: Altruism pays
Review: a spirited, optimistic book that combines a nice degree of science with philosophical musing to arrive at a notion contrary to the title's implication. Altruism "feels" right in a psychological sense - so it's nice to know there's a biological vested interest in it. Fun reading.
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Summary: Science writing at its best
Review: This book covers the modern interpretation of genetics which differs from Darwinism. The Darwinist idea was chance changes and permutations of a species' gene pool, that have a bearing on physical traits and behaviours that govern the likelyhood of an individuals survival, results in an evolutionary process. The individual organism is the central object in Dawinist theory. In modern theory the genes themselves are central. That is, organisms are vessels for genes that move forward through time via the organisms they build. This change of perspective helps explain non-selfish acts by individuals, the presence of inactive genes (benign genetic parasites) and why sexual reproduction, which increases gene permutations, predominates amongst the more complex oraganisms. All of which cannot not be easily explained from the Darwinist viewpoint. The book also explores the statistical nature of survival and extinction and how complexity can be derived from very simple mechanisms, using simple and well thought out examples. At the end of the book, an entertaining exposition of the application of these ideas to the metaphysical world of thought is given. The whole book is written in an engaging and clear style that it is very easy to read. An excellent work that will exercise the brain cells without you even realising it.
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Summary: Start here - this is "Go"!
Review: Given the amount of dreck published about this book over the past two decades, it seemed a worthwhile exercise to reread and comment on it for a new generation of readers. As with Darwin's Origin of Species, more people have commented on this work than have read or understood it. Dawkins is a superb writer, able to convey his ideas with clarity and wit. As he has stated elsewhere, however, those very ideas still challenge those whose minds are locked by preconceptions. Dawkins must be, and is, a staunch advocate in presenting to us what genes are all about. He does so in order that we better understand ourselves. He begins by anticipating the outcry of those who must see humans set apart from the rest of life. "Why Are People" examines several behavioral aspects of animals and people. Altruism receives particular attention because the term "selfish" applied to life returns us to the concept of nature "red in tooth and claw" which he wishes to avoid. Genes are not conscious entities who make decisions about their existence or future. Genes are simply replicators, using whatever resources are available to make more of themselves. With luck, the environment in which they do this allows them to survive and continue replicating. If not, the gene, and whatever characteristic it represents, goes extinct. Enough bad matches and a whole species follows the gene into extinction. In the beginning our very earliest ancestors weren't likely to even have been organisms, but simply chemicals. From this, Dawkins traces the development of the DNA molecule and the organisms that came to carry it in their cells. These organisms, "survival machines" in Dawkins' expression, carry the genes, supplying them with the raw material to continue replicating. It's a discomfiting idea to many to be brought face to face with the idea that they are but "gene machines", but Dawkins shows us in crisp prose that this is simply how life works. Because animals, particularly human animals, seem to exhibit "purpose", there is ongoing objection to the idea that actions can be gene driven. Dawkins explains that genes have had more than three billion years to develop survival techniques that give the
appearance of "purposiveness." The apparent display of purpose is covered through much of the book in his discussion of "game theory". Game theory applied to life has moved well beyond simple win or lose situations. Game situations now involve highly complex interactions in which the players don't win or lose, but survive where possible. Players don't reach a terminal finish through their activities, but reach a modus vivendi. Parents, particularly mothers, sacrifice to bear and raise offspring. Plants, deprived of an optimum niche, adapt to occupy another, less desirable one. Finally, in what might prove to be the most telling innovation in this book, Dawkins introduces a new descriptor of social behaviour: the meme. The revolution in thinking about why humanity performs some wholly illogical actions has only begun. Ideas, habits, faiths, characteristics that humans like to think separate us from the other animals, arise and replicate just like their biological counterparts. They form, replicate, find a suitable environment and continue replicating. Susan Blackmore's THE MEME MACHINE, is a must companion to this volume with its full and penetrating examination of this aspect of life. Dawkins' critics are loud and vociferous. It would be pointless to assess motivation in their continued diatribes against this book. Darwin was forced to weather the same type of criticisms for just the same reason: their ideas jerk the pedestal of divine origins from humanity. Even trained scientists find it difficult to shed the concept that because humans have achieved so much, their origins must transcend pure biology. Dawkins' critics nearly all descend to the pejorative, labelling him and his adherents, "Ultra-Darwinists". Few phrases are as meaningless as this one. How one can be "beyond Darwin" eludes definition. This book is a fine starting point in understanding how life, particularly our form of life, operates. It should be standard classroom fare, both in biology and philosophy classes. If you didn't encounter it there, buy it here. Read it carefully and closely. You will be rewarded with excellent writing, stimulating ideas and you may gain deep insight into what you are.
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