| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £31.50
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection: A Complete Variorum Edition for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £31.50, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
For a book that I rate only second in importance within evolution theory to Darwin's "Origin" as joined with its supplement, "Descent of Man", and as, in my opinion, undoubtedly one of the greatest books of the present century, the appearance of a variorum version of the Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is a major event ... In some ways some of us have overtaken Fisher; in many, however, this brilliant, daring man is still far in front. (W.D Hamilton FRS, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford )
Product Description
R A Fisher's classic The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection was first published by the Oxford University Press in 1930. It was the first attempt to assess and explain Darwin's evolutionary theories in terms of the genetic processes underlying them, and was also original in being the first book to establish a firm theoretical basis for evolution. Since then, it has become a classic text in evolutionary biology, with Fisher hailed as one of the greatest evolutionary biologists of this century. This Variorum edition will be the definitive version - the only version of The Genetical Theory in print: it will include both Fisher's original 1930 text and that of a second edition of the book, published by Dover publications in 1958, which is now out of print. It also has a new Foreword, some unpublished material by Fisher that he wrote in his own copy, and letters between Fisher and Darwin's grandson, Leonard Darwin. Students, researchers, and general readers with an interest in the history of evolutionary biology will welcome this new edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
THAT Charles Darwin accepted the fusion or blending theory of inheritance, just as all men accept many of the undisputed beliefs of their time, is universally admitted. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THAT Charles Darwin accepted the fusion or blending theory of inheritance, just as all men accept many of the undisputed beliefs of their time, is universally admitted. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is not for the feint-hearted. It is written almost in a style that defies the reader to understand it. Each sentence must be read, comtemplated, and then re-read again. Richard Dawkins this is not.
If you can perservere to understand though, you get to see into the mind of a genius. This is the defining book of the modern evolutionary synthesis, written by its most important architect.
The later chapters on class-based eugenics are rather dark and disturbing, though they may be read if one distances oneself by imagining it applying to a species of sci-fi aliens.
If you can perservere to understand though, you get to see into the mind of a genius. This is the defining book of the modern evolutionary synthesis, written by its most important architect.
The later chapters on class-based eugenics are rather dark and disturbing, though they may be read if one distances oneself by imagining it applying to a species of sci-fi aliens.
Format:Hardcover
Perhaps the most important book ever published on natural selection, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in evolution. The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection took time to make an impact in biology due to the mathematical nature of the work but it has since become a classic in evolutionary theory. The book was originally published in the 1930s and a revised edition was released by Dover in 1958. This new edition is complete with a collection of letters between Fisher & various correspondes related to the publication of this work.
At the time this book was first published, Natural selection was considered a controversial theory, believed to be incomptaible with the discovery of Mendelian inheritance. Fisher sets out in this book using mathematics, to show that slow gradual evolution and Mendelian inheritance are complementary, this book helped restores natural selection to it's rightful place as being fundamental to an understanding of biology.
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection begins by analysing the nature of heredity, rejecting blending theory in favour of particulate inheritance. In the next chapter Fisher develops his Fundamental Theorm of Natural Selection. Other issues explored in the book include the evolution of dominance, mutation and selection, sexual selection and the sex ratio and mimicry in butterflies. The final 5 chapters of the book include Fisher's views on Eugenics.
At the time this book was first published, Natural selection was considered a controversial theory, believed to be incomptaible with the discovery of Mendelian inheritance. Fisher sets out in this book using mathematics, to show that slow gradual evolution and Mendelian inheritance are complementary, this book helped restores natural selection to it's rightful place as being fundamental to an understanding of biology.
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection begins by analysing the nature of heredity, rejecting blending theory in favour of particulate inheritance. In the next chapter Fisher develops his Fundamental Theorm of Natural Selection. Other issues explored in the book include the evolution of dominance, mutation and selection, sexual selection and the sex ratio and mimicry in butterflies. The final 5 chapters of the book include Fisher's views on Eugenics.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
BEWARE OF THE 2010 PAPERBACK VERSION
4 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is a classic and should be owned and read by all students of evolutionary theory. The low star rating that I have given is ONLY with respect to the 2010 paperback version.
The copyright for the first edition is expired and the company that published the 2010 version scanned a library copy from the University of Toronto (which is entirely legal, I think). The first page of the scanned reproduction reads "You are holding a reproduction of an original work published before 1923...". This is strange because the title page indicates that the book was written in 1930, which is accurate.
THE PROBLEM: The copy of the book from which the 2010 version was scanned has markings throughout, underlining, comments, and some of the pages are out of order (e.g., page 34 faces page 37).
If you want a "New" copy of the book, I do not recommend buying this version. It is well worth the extra money to get a clean copy, if that's what you're looking for.
I am returning mine.
The copyright for the first edition is expired and the company that published the 2010 version scanned a library copy from the University of Toronto (which is entirely legal, I think). The first page of the scanned reproduction reads "You are holding a reproduction of an original work published before 1923...". This is strange because the title page indicates that the book was written in 1930, which is accurate.
THE PROBLEM: The copy of the book from which the 2010 version was scanned has markings throughout, underlining, comments, and some of the pages are out of order (e.g., page 34 faces page 37).
If you want a "New" copy of the book, I do not recommend buying this version. It is well worth the extra money to get a clean copy, if that's what you're looking for.
I am returning mine.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A packaged Xerox
20 April 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a bound version of a Xerox somebody made from a library copy of the real thing, complete with underlines someone made years ago in the text! Absolutely terrible. Don't waste your money unless you really need a copy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
AN INTERESTING AND SIGNIFICANT ADDITION TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
10 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback
Ronald A. Fisher(1890-1962) was an English geneticist, and one of the founders of population genetics. In the Preface to this 1930 book, he states, "The present book, with all the limitations of a first attempt, is at least an attempt to consider the theory of Natural Selection on its own merits." He articulates a number of principles such as, "The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time."
He states that Natural Selection "affords a rational explanation of structures, reactions and instincts which can be recognized as profitable to their individual possessors. It affords no corresponding explanation for any properties of animals or plants which, without being individually advantageous, are supposed to be of service to the species to which they belong." He further argues, "the widely observed fact that mutations are usually recessive should not lead us to assume that this is true of mutations of a beneficial or neutral character."
However, he also admits, "A mutation, even if favorable, will have only a very small chance of establishing itself in the species if it occurs once only. If its selective advantage is only 1 per cent, it may well have to occur 50 times, but scarcely in mature individuals as many as 250 times before it establishes itself in a sufficient number of individuals for its future prospects to be secure."
He is nevertheless optimistic about the possibilities of variation: "It has not so often been realized how very far most existing species must be from such a state of stagnation, or how easily with no more than one hundred factors a species may be modified to a condition considerably outside the range of its previous variation, and this in a large number of different characteristics." He holds that "In this way it is by no means a supposition to be excluded as impossible that a character first manifested equally by the two sexes should, by the action of natural selection, later become sex-limited in its appearance."
Fisher was also a fervent believer in Eugenics; the last five chapters of the book offer Fisher's thoughts on "Reproduction in relation to social class," "Conditions of Permanent Civilization," "race-mixing," etc. He suggests that the decline of civilizations is related to lowered fertility of the upper classes. These ideas will certainly limit the appeal of his book to a modern reader.
He states that Natural Selection "affords a rational explanation of structures, reactions and instincts which can be recognized as profitable to their individual possessors. It affords no corresponding explanation for any properties of animals or plants which, without being individually advantageous, are supposed to be of service to the species to which they belong." He further argues, "the widely observed fact that mutations are usually recessive should not lead us to assume that this is true of mutations of a beneficial or neutral character."
However, he also admits, "A mutation, even if favorable, will have only a very small chance of establishing itself in the species if it occurs once only. If its selective advantage is only 1 per cent, it may well have to occur 50 times, but scarcely in mature individuals as many as 250 times before it establishes itself in a sufficient number of individuals for its future prospects to be secure."
He is nevertheless optimistic about the possibilities of variation: "It has not so often been realized how very far most existing species must be from such a state of stagnation, or how easily with no more than one hundred factors a species may be modified to a condition considerably outside the range of its previous variation, and this in a large number of different characteristics." He holds that "In this way it is by no means a supposition to be excluded as impossible that a character first manifested equally by the two sexes should, by the action of natural selection, later become sex-limited in its appearance."
Fisher was also a fervent believer in Eugenics; the last five chapters of the book offer Fisher's thoughts on "Reproduction in relation to social class," "Conditions of Permanent Civilization," "race-mixing," etc. He suggests that the decline of civilizations is related to lowered fertility of the upper classes. These ideas will certainly limit the appeal of his book to a modern reader.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
