The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1987-01-01) Paperback

After 30 years, these groundbreaking insights in evolution stand out as a major landmark. I don't know if this is now required reading in colleges, but it probably should be. A graduate in the sciences who hadn't fully grokked these ideas is a poorly educated graduate indeed.

I also enjoyed the introduction to game theory.

The anniversary addition features an opening section in which Dawkins slices up a few of his detractors with classic British wit. Like the main content of the book, it's tons o' fun to read.

As is usually the case with Richard Dawkins' writings, this book clearly and convincingly makes his case. In this case, he convincingly demolishes the concepts of group and individual organism selection and instead promotes gene selection as the means by which various (especially pro-social) behaviours evolved. He also explains the foundations of current evolutionary theory and how it has progressed since Darwin's time.

More importantly, he explains that biology is not destiny and that we humans are now in a position to use our brains to subvert the blind instincts bequeathed us by our selfish genes and instead build a society based on pro-long-term survival, evidence based morality.

Dawkins writes this book in a very clear and easy to understand way. This is good for someone like me, who prior to reading the book had little to no knowledge on genetics, or anything else on the subject. While his writing can be a little dry, as I expected it would be from a book on this subject, it was never a struggle to get through. He writes it in an accommodating way that allows those less knowledgable on the subject to understand what is going on, without any difficult to understand lingo on the subject that I would perhaps struggle with.
In each chapter he focuses on a subject to help us better understand what he is trying to tell us about our genetic tendencies, but he does this in a way that is a little unusual. Many of the chapter’s focuses are on things that are unrelated to the specific topic of the book. While there are things that are related, like how DNA is formed, to more unrelated ones like what cases certain sexual partners are attracted to one another. This works pretty well and helps to bring his point across. All in all, the book left me feeling better educated on a range of topics addressed in the book, as well as in the selfishness of our genes.

I really enjoyed the writing the style of Dawkins. It was quite clever at times and engaging throughout. He peppers his explanations with jokes but thoroughly addresses his point of view. The big takeaway from me was mainly that Darwinian natural selection seems to be occurring on directly on the genetic level; also the effects of this genetic natural selection is essentially incalculable due to the extended phenotypic effects of the replicators themselves.

I've recommended this book to everybody. I took my time reading this book; I like big ideas to marinate in the mind. I'd really recommend taking this one slow(I do regret rushing at times) and digest the profound idea at the core of the Selfish Gene; the magnitude can't really be understated at least on a laymen(such as myself).

I feel like at points he gets a little pedantic. I felt like at times he added some fluff for what seems no reason and all.

I gave it a 5 because I found this book to be quite profound. Generally I believe many people have a basic understanding of Darwin but don't really know the potential extent of the implications of some of his theories. Dawkins takes his theories to a logical(and incredibly plausible) extreme. 5

If you're willing to challenge your usual beliefs about things like family bonds/relationships, and human and animal behavior, you should read this book. You will see the world differently!

Richard Dawkins is a revolutionary thinker and this book is a life changer. Beware though, some of his observations and theses could make you a bit uncomfortable depending on your current outlook and background. Also, I can see how some people may have a hard time following due to the scientific vocabulary that is sometimes used in this book, but that's no reason to not read it.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Anyone approaching this book with a superficial knowledge of evolutionary biology sees this title and thinks it will be a drawn-out exposition of Darwin's war of all against all for survival. This feature of Darwinism is, of course, present in the book, but the ideas discussed in it are far more complex than a quick judgment based on the cover would imply. Note the title: it does not refer to "selfish humans": the stress is rather on the noun, the gene. The gene is the protagonist. And, of course, the title is also figurative. The gene is not selfish in the same sense as a human being is: it is only designed to replicate itself. And this all-powerful tendency is what, according to Dawkins, is (or should be) the foundation of our understanding of animal behavior.

Anyone put off by the title should be advised that it contains pronouncements such as the following sentence, which is startling to find in a book by a biologist: "We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators" (p. 201) And if you are still in doubt, begin by reading the next-to-last chapter ("Nice guys finish first"), in which Dawkins takes a lengthy detour through game theory and the prisoner's dilemma to demonstrate how selfishness or vindictiveness at the level of the individual is not necessarily the most successful strategy for replicating your genes.

All in all, a fascinating book.

The second most important book ever written about evolution.

Simply put, that is the significance of this book. Richard Dawkins is the most important and famous atheist, qua atheist, ever, and this is the work that made him famous -- and still the best work he has ever done. It's such a compelling case for evolution, and for evolution on a gene -- not collective -- level that it's hard to imagine reading it and not being convinced. It's so influential that it literally created new words that have fully entered into the lexicon; Dawkins invented the word "meme" out of whole cloth in the visionary final chapter of this book.

Beyond that, Dawkins writes very well and is easy to read -- especially in his rare "purple passages" when he allows himself to wax a bit poetic on the wonders of existence.

The Selfish Gene is a must-read.

Dawkins uses a very interesting strategy that I've not seen before in trimming down a book that could be a little too long: Putting a lot of statements that would have worked just fine as endnotes as endnotes. This has cut a lot of fat out of the book and made a very dense topic a lot more approachable.

In trying to make the text approachable, he has also not used a single equation in the whole text-- even though he could have saved a lot of space by simply taking the route of using an equation. There would not have been much diminshment.

Lastly, he gives a balanced presentation by including the contrary arguments of some researchers in the field and by rebutting/ addressing those points (rather just neglecting to mention them). This is done in such a way that it is neither too abstruse nor a dismissal out of hand.

Making a 250 plus page text on the whether natural selection takes place at the genotypic level or the phenotypic level is a Herculean (and laudable) task in and of itself. This book is well worth the read.

A thought provoking book, very well written, it does a great job of presenting some basic but interesting ideas in biology, genetics and game theory to the non-specialist. Let me put this straight: this is not a book about finding a gene that is responsible for selfishness or "inhumanity" (that's already been done, just take Bush DNA in stock, and remember to take away the idiocy gene;) it is not a book about moral philosophy, it is not a book against religion and it won't make you feel better if you are an egoistic as*#*le. It is just a lively written exposition of the workings of evolution and the subtle interactions that living creatures have among themselves. The focus of the book is on shifting the idea of evolution from species evolution and individual animal evolution to gene evolution. To be true, at the elementary level the game of survival, mutation and evolution is played by the genes and not the organisms, and this is a very important and interesting idea to behold. Sometimes Dawkins gets a bit carried away by his "communicative genius" calling animal bodies "lumbering robots built by the genes" but at least he manages to catch the reader attention vey effectively. I personally don't understand his sectarian hostility towars group selection. To me, species, group, individual, kin and gene selection are all valid, they just tend to be the dominant force in different time/space domains. The only downside of the book is the smell of the petty disputes of the "specialists" in the field, which seemed to be quarreling more on words and way of seeing things than on real, sound, genuine ideas. This is the unmistakable sign of a stagnant field. I think that what makes some religious people snarl at this book is not its main idea (evolution is played at he gene level, and genes that are around today must have done well in diffusing at the expenses of others) but the very natural explanation it gives of selfishness and altruism (they help a single gene or a pool of similar or identical genes to survive and spread), something that religious people see as too "God-related" to be subject to biological explanations... Overall a a great book that will spark your interest in biology, genetics, ethology, sociobiology and even apparently unrelated fields like game theory.

This book explains life and "humanity". It also explains how to create life and "humanity" all over again. Using extremely accessible logic, each of its chapters has the fundamental power to change the way you look at everything around you, including your own being and coming to life. It explains why animals, humans and ideas are born, how they interact, and what the world looks like in wake of their cooperation and competition. It explains why we are nice and forgiving, and how we live in harmony as if protected by a higher being, despite our fundamentally selfish encoding. If I could make a wish, it would be that this book was taught in our schools alongside many other subjects that don't merit nearly as much credit for explaining why we, our cultures and our values exist.

The implications of evolution that are explained to wide audience through this book are fundamental to understanding yourself, humanity, and all life in the universe. Here is a scientific explanation to you!

The Selfish Gene elucidates the genetic determinants of biological structure, function and behavior in a highly articulate, yet comprehensible manner. This book has withstood the test of time and it's central theme is as relevant as it was forty years ago, thanks to the preface and epilogue. The author's writing skill and erudition make it an enjoyable and highly informative read.

Personification, or (more awkwardly) anthropomorphization, is a slightly silly convention practiced daily by all of us. It consists of attributing sentient human characteristics to non-human entities, as in "the computer thinks you want to shut it down," or "my car is out to get me." Such expressions are usually harmless because everyone knows the metaphors aren't meant literally. There are certain contexts, though, where personification becomes troublesome. Two of them are biology and evolution. I once criticized Michael Behe for writing that viruses mutate "in order to evade the immune system." Viruses cannot strategize or harbor motives, and to imply that they do carelessly misstates the fundamentals of evolution, a theory Behe was attempting to refute! Tacky.
The title itself should put any "Selfish Gene" reader on notice that a megadose of personification is coming, but even thus forewarned I was taken aback by the extent of it. The author seems to be in the peculiar position of understanding perfectly well the drawbacks of anthropomorphization, but pressing on with it anyway. An unfortunate result is that Dawkins incessantly uses the language of conscious motives while issuing caveats about it. In both main text and chapter notes (1989 edition), he alternates between backpedaling from personification (e.g. top, page 89) and irritably dismissing any reader or critic obtuse enough to suppose he means what he says (e.g. page 278). Perhaps I am unreasonably sensitive, but personification issues in "Selfish Gene" significantly reduced my ability to enjoy it.
So if that's how I felt about the book, why did I finish it? Because it was more than worthwhile to do so. Like Dawkins' other works, this one is a cornucopia of useful information, novel interpretations and clever insights. It introduces such diverse topics as the ironic and unwisely-ignored concept of speciesism, the meme as a reproducing unit of imitative behavior, the significance of evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSs), and the game-theoretical aspects of ad hoc live-and-let-live behavior among WW1 combatants. One would have to be anesthetized not to learn and profit from reading "Selfish Gene."

I loved The Selfish Gene, and am truly distressed at the anguish expressed in Mr. Edwards' review above. I wish to reassure potential readers that in no way do the theories put forth by Dawkins diminish the human experience and make life "pointless." Dawkins provides the physical means by which such abstract concepts as altruism come to exist at all (and bear in mind that Dawkins employs the word selfish with a wink). Even God, whom Mr. Edwards still feels the need to seek, admitted His Own selfish nature to man in the Ten Commandments.

Dawkins envisions a cosmic democracy, for lack of a better term, in which the selfish gene (and creatures that contain it) "votes" through its very death or survival. It took human beings thousands of years to break free from our dependence upon earthly kings and institute democracy amongst ourselves, surely a blasphemous idea. Now, we find that the motion of life itself is governed not by a disembodied dictator but by the localized actions of self-replicating entities, through their strategies, in the very "games" that they play. Why the despair at this idea? Why endure such a spiritual rupture, to discover that we simultaneously have a physical drive for self-preservation than feeds our altruistic aims?

There has to be a physical basis for reality. There has to be a fact of the matter, finally, or life truly would not exist at all-and that would truly be pointless.

I heartily recommend this book for multiple readings and detailed, meticulous examination, whatever your religious inclinations. And for my part, may I say that this book inspired me to write two short stories and one poem. Art is "selfish," too, and yet, art is one of our highest ideals. Can anything exist without selfishness, after all?

The game is simple. Given finite resources, survive. There is no joy in winning, no sorrow in loss. You and I are here because we played the game well - so far. What you do, what you feel, what you will most probably do is all controlled by mathematical statistics. You are in a boat with your son and a friend of your son. You can save only two people - who will you save? No matter what you think- you are nothing but an answer to a high school probability question. This is the premise of the book. It presents some statistics concepts, not too Math heavy, presents examples from real life, and lets you think. But in the mathematical matrix, Dawkins suggests there is some hope of redemption - if not physically, at least philosophically. But that is not the focus of the book. The focus of the book is statistics, some math and how nature follows these laws unfeelingly.
Some people misunderstand the book - that we are inherently selfish. That is not the message of the book. It is a book of science and evolution and math and how the gene was built to survive. Would you blame a lion for killing a calf? There is still choice - perhaps points of singularity in this mathematical matrix. But overall, we still appear to be pieces on a chess board, controlled by the rules of the game played by some unseen player.

In this excellent book, professor R. Dawkins provides a logical overview of how evolutionary theory works and discusses its various mechanisms in detail. To be sure, prof. Dawkins advances a particular branch of the evolutionary theory - that of the selfish gene. In doing this, throughout the book he routinely compares the selfish gene theory to other competing branches of the theory. In doing these comparisons, however, he always provides a somewhat lengthy and most importantly a fair treatment of the competing theories. Indeed, I would say he goes out of his way to ensure that he doesn't misrepresent the others' theories.

Unlike his later books, in which Dawkins focuses on attacking the proponents of the pseudoscience of Intelligent Design, and theists of all sorts, there are no such distractions in this book. Occasionally, prof. Dawkins provides commentary on ethics, morals, society and philosophy, but such commentary is kept to a minimum and are largely somewhat relevant to the theme of the book.

Whether you are a novice to the evolutionary theory, or a biologist/scientist, this book was a joy to read. Highly recommended.

This is truely one of the most extrodinary science books of the 20th century. It's well written. And though at times a bit technical, it's still a great read for the lay person. Dawkins is one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time. If you have any interest in science or biology, READ THIS BOOK!

This book ought to be essential reading for any thinking human being.

If you've ever wondered about why humans do the things they do much is explained in this excellent book.

Of all the books I have ever read, thousands, this is the one I find myself recommending time and again when people claim not understand why people do the things they do and make the choices that they do.

What motivates us?

Read this book and it ALL falls into place.