The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  280 reviews
Sales Rank: 837
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0199291152
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.5
EAN: 9780199291151
ASIN: 0199291152
Publication Date: May 25, 2006
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Amazon.com
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since. Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. --Rob Lightner
Product Description
Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands of readers to rethink their beliefs about life.
In his internationally bestselling, now classic volume, The Selfish Gene, Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. The world of the selfish gene revolves around savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit, and yet, Dawkins argues, acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature. Bees, for example, will commit suicide when they sting to protect the hive, and birds will risk their lives to warn the flock of an approaching hawk.
This 30th anniversary edition of Dawkins' fascinating book retains all original material, including the two enlightening chapters added in the second edition. In a new Introduction the author presents his thoughts thirty years after the publication of his first and most famous book, while the inclusion of the two-page original Foreword by brilliant American scientist Robert Trivers shows the enthusiastic reaction of the scientific community at that time. This edition is a celebration of a remarkable exposition of evolutionary thought, a work that has been widely hailed for its stylistic brilliance and deep scientific insights, and that continues to stimulate whole new areas of research today.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 275 more reviews...
 Some people never get it. July 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After reading this book a while back, I really did not get the impression from it that many people got. Some became depressed because of it?! It just does not make any sense.
This book does not tell us that we are no more than automatons, or that we are no more than our genes, or that we live a purposeless life, doomed to live out whatever was programmed into us by our genetic code. Sure, there are some spectacular statements that Dawkins makes for effect, but if one reads the entire book, one can understand that he is much of the time using metaphors to get a message across.
What is the general message? That we are survival machines for our genetic code. Our DNA contains code that works for its own survival, and why not? Who will really argue that we have no instincts? Instincts are something assigned only to "animals" by those of an anti-science mentality; instincts do not apply to "humans" as separate beings from the natural world. No, we are above all of that, the anti-science crowd will tell you.
However, remove things such as food, shelter, sex, loved ones, etc, and see how this human behaves. We are not set apart from the natural world, and we have drives and instincts that are hard-wired, just like all the other animals. These drives are for our own protection and for the protection of the ones closest to us, and if threatened by danger, we see who comes first in our eyes.
 Blind theorizing June 27, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Dawkins writes that "the argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes" (p.xxi) and that "We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes" (p.xxi). Yet, according to him, this book "is not science fiction; it is science" (p.xxi)!
Dawkins contrives to overlook the twin discoveries that:
1.the observable traits of organisms are mostly conditioned by the interactions of many genes;
2.most genes have multiple effects on many of these traits.
Dawkins transfers characteristics with which he is familiar from human behaviour on the macro-level to the inanimate components, "genes", of which we are physically constructed. He then proceeds to argue that these impersonal entities, which he imagines to possess characteristically human traits, infallibly generate the same unpleasant traits in human behaviour on the macro-level. So he writes: "The gene is the basic unit of selfishness" (p.36).
The absurdity is evident in that genes or other nonconscious entities cannot be either selfish or unselfish. They cannot "compete" against anything or "choose" anything.
If Dawkins were right, what would be the point of declaring, as he does: "Let us try to *teach* generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish" (p.3)? For if we really were machines, as he believes, even these very concepts would be meaningless to us. And certainly his oratory could have no effect whatever on our actual behaviour.
In fact genes do not force us to behave in any particular way. Neither can they possess the ability to direct or to comprehend all that is required to adopt a course of either heartless selfishness or heartfelt, sacrificial compassion.
The Gene's Eye View Will Change Your Life June 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Once you read the Selfish Gene, Your world will never be the same. Pardon the purple passage and excuse the apparent hyperbole, but what I assert is true, true, true.
The basic idea of the Selfish Gene is that the unit of selection is the gene, and the gene, by definition, is selfish. To see why, a quick example will do. Suppose there are two seperate genes, let us label them A and B respectively. Gene A resides inside Karen, while gene B resides inside Kim. If gene A causes Karen to develop into a symmetrical, serpentine young woman, while gene B causes Kim to develop in a highly irregular manner, it is not hard to see that gene A, ceteris paribus, will be passed on in greater number than gene B. Over time this means, eo ipso, that gene A will become numerically superior in any gene pool. Of course life is not so simple, and no one gene causes beauty. However, the point is that the gene's eye view of the world explains so many mysteries of life. Altruism, sterile insects, special treatment toward kin, parent-offspring conflict, sex differences, and on and on: All can be explained with a selfish gene view of life.
This may be the most powerfully written popular science book ever. I know that lavishing such praise on any work is problematic. However, I do not know of a book that influenced so many people in such a deep way. Even at 32 years of age, this book is as fresh as ever.
Why Do People Exist? June 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In eleven short, tightly written, lively, and easy to understand chapters, Professor Dawkins answers all the questions about Darwin's theory of evolution that we might have always wanted to know the answers to but were afraid to ask. He does this even though strictly speaking, the book is not at all intended to be a book on evolution. It was intended to be about the gene-centered view of evolution: that is to say, about how the gene sits at the center of the control module of all living organisms.
Dawkins belief in evolution is solid, because to him, Darwin's theory is settled science that has not only stood the test of time but also is a "thoroughly-tested" and falsifiable theory. And as existential theories of living matter go, Darwin's theory of Evolution -- with its primary instrumentalities of time and natural selection -- provides the simplest explanation (in the sense of Occam's razor), of all living things: of how we got from inorganic to organic matter; from unordered atoms to complex patterns, from simplicity to complexity more generally, and from a single "live" cell, to the cell's ascendance into more complex living organisms, to higher forms and orders. This of course means that a supernatural being of any kind whatsoever would be superfluous.
At the beginning of the book, the author poses the question "Why Do People Exist?" and proceeds to answer it by saying that: We exist in large part because of the "biology of selfishness," that is, due to the selfishness of the genes. In the process of answering this question, he develops the biology of DNA and along the way demolishes some long-held hypotheses of the "pre-Darwinian" social psychologists and theorists who have long believed falsely that evolution is concerned more with the "survival of the species" rather than with the "survival of the individual." Dawkins claim is a radical and controversial one: that this long-held hypothesis about altruism makes no evolutionary sense; and that if we are concerned about the evolution of altruism, then biology is probably not the right place to look.
The crux of Dawkin's thesis is that "bodies are mere transport vehicles for genes." "We are machines created by and under the control of our genes," the predominant quality of which is "their ruthless selfishness." And although altruism may indeed have survival extending value, we are genetically programmed to be ruthlessly selfish rather than altruistic.
This is a seminal work that set off the fireworks in the sociobiology debates, and 30 years on, a great deal of its substance is still valid and has endured. Five stars.
 Very readable for non-scientists May 27, 2008
Dawkins takes up where Darwin stopped; his reasoning and logical proofs sweep the last bit of theism from the mind. Especially the notion of memes as a cultural and scientific evolution is right on the dot.
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