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Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene Paperback – 1 Jun. 1999

by Richard Dawkins (Author)

4.6 7,211 ratings

Part of: Oxford Landmark Science (19 books)

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This million-copy bestseller is universally acclaimed and translated into over twenty languages. "The sort of popular science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius." - "New York Times." "This important book could hardly be more exciting." - "The Economist." "Learned, witty, and very well written...exhilaratingly good." - "Spectator." "The reader will come away with a clear understanding of kin selection, evolutionary stable strategies, and evolutionary theories of animal behaviour. This is a considerable achievement." - "THES." "The exciting theories and their wide implications are explained with clarity, wit and enthusiasm." - Peter Parker, "Sunday Times." "This book should be read, can be read, by almost everyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution." W. D. Hamilton, "Science." "The presentations are remarkable for their clarity and simplicity, intelligible to any schoolchild, yet so little condescending as to be a pleasure to the professional." - "American Scientist."

Part of series

Oxford Landmark Science
Print length

366 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Oxford Paperbacks
Publication date

1 Jun. 1999
Dimensions

19.53 x 1.98 x 12.85 cm
ISBN-10

0192860925
ISBN-13

978-0192860927
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Popular highlights in this book

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The earliest form of natural selection was simply a selection of stable forms and a rejection of unstable ones.
Highlighted by 3,120 Kindle readers
They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.
Highlighted by 2,470 Kindle readers
Among animals, man is uniquely dominated by culture, by influences learned and handed down.
Highlighted by 1,865 Kindle readers

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"the sort of popular science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius" -- New York Times

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford Paperbacks; 2nd edition (1 Jun. 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 366 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192860925
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0192860927
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.53 x 1.98 x 12.85 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 143,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 36 in Medical Genetics
- 131 in Genetics in Popular Science
- 133 in Genetics (Books)

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4.6 7,211 ratings

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Richard Dawkins

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Richard Dawkins taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University and is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. Among his previous books are The Ancestor's Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, and A Devil's Chaplain. Dawkins lives in Oxford with his wife, the actress and artist Lalla Ward.

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Ricky

MP3 = "a life saver!"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 14 August 2015

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I have followed Richard Dawkins pretty since the first publishing of this book in 1976. I am already aware of the content' and I have kept myself abreast of the following edition updates. From the very first time I read this exceptional and well ahead of it's time insight to the role of our genes in 'predicting' the future of our lives, but more so the powerful acknowledgement that genes are in humans. the 'prime mover' pretty well in all things. Yes, 'nurture certainly has it's role to play, but in the end we are all product's of our gene's, like it or lump it! When I became aware that the gene that produces a horrific terminal neurological disease called Huntington's Chorea, remains dormant and undetected until late twenties, or our thirties, simply because the 'gene' has the awareness that it's 'continuation' to the next 'generation' is reliant on 'procreation', the gene remains 'quiet' until those years when we are most likely to procreate, guaranteeing it's future. At this moment in time, the only 'cure' is not for the sufferer, (they will die a 'horrific' death,) but the advice given to the 'families' of Huntington's is DO NOT HAVE ANY FURTHER CHILDREN, YOU WILL MOST LIKELY BE SENTENCING THEM TO A TERRIBLE FATE! The gene is cathode down the matriarchal line. That is the only way to eradicate this disease in families that have the genetic marker. STOP your hereditary lineage now! Dawkins reveals the world of our gene's in a very cleaver account, their is no room for emotional biochemistry here! This is indeed nature very much in the raw! Heartless and totally unforgiving! As then years have thundered by, so has nature taken it;s toll. My eyes are not what they used to be, so I invested in this MP3 version of the Selfish Gene, (unabridged,) read by the author and his wife, Lala Ward. I have transferred the CD through my Mac on to my I-Pod and I listen to varying chapters over and over again to grasp the complexity of his arguments, which are in my opinion beyond critical negative comment. They have certainly stood the test of time in almost all their original observations. However, one thing I will recommend about this MP3 version is this. If you have sight loss, it's a life saver! If you also want to listen, (and many of us interpret the spoken word better than the written one in certain situation,) this MP3 version is for you! However their is a last caveat. Both Richard Dawkins and his wife Lala ward, have the most beautiful diction, (their voices are like honey to the
ear,) and I often listen to this and imagine myself in the lecture theatre taking this stuff in like the 'ambrosia' that it is! I am elderly now, but thankfully I appear to be avoiding the 'devil' of our ageing process, loss of cognitive ability! This MP3 format, presenting some of the major works of the past years in the spoken word, is indeed the 'sweetest fruit' from the tree of knowledge. Highly highly recommended, both in 'content' and intellectual argument that has proved itself right in most things however, you get an extra bonus here. Listening to an intellect that on occasion leaves me breathless and coming up for air. I have "The Blind Watchmaker" on MP3 format and I have an abridged version of the "God Delusion!" I ask you imagine this is you please. Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins sitting round the table at Down House in Kent! What I would have been to have been an invited (non participating) guest!

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S. Meadows

A classic text in popular biology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 21 September 2012

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It's important to note that this is a book written back in the 1970s. The author who wrote it should not be mistaken for the divisive figure that he has become within the last 10 years. The edition I picked up was the 30th anniversary edition, which comes with 3 prefaces and a foreword.

Reading the first few chapters, the most striking thing is Dawkins' engaging narrative style. It can be little surprise that subsequent to writing this he was made a professor for the public understanding of science, as his written communication is crystal clear. In addition to the main text, there are some lengthy endnotes which appear to be mostly the product of later editions where there is an extremely defensive tone, in some exasperation of opposition born out of misunderstanding of the ideas and terminology used in the first edition.

Although the title of the book implies a book on genetics, this is largely confined to the early couple of chapters with the majority of the book looking at animal behaviour from a gene's point of view. It is easy to see why some might take him for an atomist from these discussions, as he gives little countenance to causes other than genetic inheritance. This may simply be a consequence of his emphasis rather than reflecting his actual views, though such atomism is common, in my experience, amongst those who cite Dawkins as a major source of their scientific knowledge and understanding.

However, one has to recall warnings given early in the book about Dawkins' use of terminology. Much of the book is written in simile and metaphor, with many adjectives loaded with the capacity to be misread if one reads the text as a literalist.

One of the key themes is altruism. That is, how do organisms end up helping one another out if their genes inheritance follows a rough pattern that might be described as "selfish." Aren't selfishness and altruism polar opposites? Dawkins argues that this is not so. In so doing, the prime target in Dawkins' crosshairs are proponents of "group selection" who (very broadly speaking) favour the idea that animals and plants behave in such a way as to ensure the survival of their particular group. Dawkins argues convincingly that this is an illusion and gives examples where such a theory is left somewhat lacking where the selfish gene theory can provide a reasonable hypothesis.

With all this said, though, it has to be noted that Dawkins includes very little hard evidence in his book. To keep things interesting and engaging for the lay reader, we are presented with multiple anecdotes rather than scientific studies. So, reading with due scepticism, one should be wary of accepting all of Dawkins' ideas unquestionably. Indeed, shortly after finishing the book, I was given a link to a paper (though unfortunately, it is hidden behind a paywall) which calls into question Dawkins' "kin selection."

This brings us to the weak points of the book. It begins in chapter 10, `You scratch my back, I'll ride on yours' where Dawkins make a quite startling comment for a scientist: "One cannot really speak of `evidence' for this idea, but...." (it's on page 182 of the 30th anniversary edition, if you want the full quote, it's rather too long to copy) - yet in the next chapter, where Dawkins introduces the idea of a meme, he makes his statement that faith is "blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence."

Of course, his definition has now become almost as famous as it is erroneous. Yet that fame could mistakenly lead one to think that this was an early example of Dawkins' departure from science into the world of atheistic diatribe; it absolutely is not. It is merely an example that he used to illustrate his innovative idea on the transmission of information. Of course, subsequent decades of works on memetics have proved fruitless, and it is now abandoned as a serious line of enquiry by all but a vocal minority. If this surprises you, I would point you to the last ever edition of the journal of memetics where the situation was summed up quite nicely.

Following on from this, Dawkins looks at game theory which may seem out of place in a biology book, but which serves as a useful introduction to anyone who has not encountered it before. The book concludes with an additional chapter not included in the original edition. It is a concise summary of the follow-up book, The Extended Phenotype. It's not an extract for a sequel, which I have seen in some publications, but it serves the same purpose, as an advert for the reader to make a further purchase. In this respect, it is quite successful, as it is as immensely fascinating as the rest of The Selfish Gene.

Though some of its ideas have now had severe doubt cast upon them, The Selfish Gene still stands as a wonderful pop science book on biology, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in science.

8 people found this helpful

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Alessandro Perilli

A mind-bending interpretation of life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 12 June 2022

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After over 40 years of reviews, there's probably nothing original or intelligent that I could say about this book that has not been said already. So I'll say a few obvious things and feel guilty about it.

If you love Darwin's Theory of Evolution, you must read this book. To be clear, reading "On the Origin of Species" is not a prerequisite to understanding this book, but familiarity with Darwin's theory significantly helps comprehension.
In fact, you should probably read this book even if you are not familiar with Darwin's theory, as it offers a mind-bending interpretation of life. Missing the opportunity of being exposed to this groundbreaking idea would be a disservice to yourself.

The language is easy to comprehend, but some concepts require significant concentration. Differently from many books, each footnote is an extensive and fascinating reading. Don't miss them.
The 40th edition is enriched with new material in the Epilogue, so be sure to read that, too.

If you are leading a modern corporation or aspire to, here's an idea not expressed in the book. A fascinating analogy could be drawn between the book's central idea of humans as survival machines for selfish (yet cooperating) genes and business corporations as survival machines for selfish (yet cooperating) employees.

7 people found this helpful

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The Selfish Gene Paperback – 1 Jun. 1999

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