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THE SELFISH GENE

by Richard Dawkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 1976

Richard Dawkins is an English zoologist who is determined to refute not only the man-is-nasty ethologists like Lorenz or Ardrey but also the E. O. Wilsons who see cooperation and altruism as genetic traits, exemplified even at the level of the social insects. Dawkins' point is that neither the individual entity—man or plant or animal—nor the race is the measure of evolution. It is the gene (or rather a genetic unit which could comprise several different traits) which is replicated throughout generations. At that level all the arguments about man's true nature fade into the statistics of the probability of selection (and hence survival) in the gene pool. The arguments are sophisticated game-theory ones, and the language largely metaphor. The gene is endowed with sentience to make the idear clear, which explains the book's title. It is in the gene's best interest, for example, to see to it that the genes of near relatives get a better chance to survive, because this increases the chances of the selfish gene's identical replica also surviving. Thus some degree of altruism is to be expected, even an occasional suicide. The danger, repeatedly acknowledged by the author, is that the "thinking gene" metaphor may be taken too literally; certainly the reader who skims may be misled by the constant reification. Ultimately Dawkins bails the human race out of the selfish gene concept by postulating yet another metaphor: the meme. This is the cultural analogue of the gene—the idea, custom, or belief that spreads through human populations much more rapidly than biological traits. It is through memes, Dawkins believes, that mankind can achieve true altruism, the foresight that directs individual behavior toward the good of the group. A very interesting treatment of a complex, controversial subject, not to be read lightly but all the more rewarding for that reason.

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 1976

ISBN: 0199291152

Page Count: 385

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 16, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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by Richard Dawkins

by Christopher Hitchens & Richard Dawkins & Sam Harris & Daniel C. Dennett

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THE RIGHT STUFF

by Tom Wolfe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 1979

Yes: it's high time for a de-romanticized, de-mythified, close-up retelling of the U.S. Space Program's launching—the inside story of those first seven astronauts. But no: jazzy, jivey, exclamation-pointed, italicized Tom Wolfe "Mr. Overkill" hasn't really got the fight stuff for the job. Admittedly, he covers all the ground. He begins with the competitive, macho world of test pilots from which the astronauts came (thus being grossly overqualified to just sit in a controlled capsule); he follows the choosing of the Seven, the preparations for space flight, the flights themselves, the feelings of the wives; and he presents the breathless press coverage, the sudden celebrity, the glorification. He even throws in some of the technology. But instead of replacing the heroic standard version with the ring of truth, Wolfe merely offers an alternative myth: a surreal, satiric, often cartoony Wolfe-arama that, especially since there isn't a bit of documentation along the way, has one constantly wondering if anything really happened the way Wolfe tells it. His astronauts (referred to as "the brethren" or "The True Brothers") are obsessed with having the "right stuff" that certain blend of guts and smarts that spells pilot success. The Press is a ravenous fool, always referred to as "the eternal Victorian Gent": when Walter Cronkite's voice breaks while reporting a possible astronaut death, "There was the Press the Genteel Gent, coming up with the appropriate emotion. . . live. . . with no prompting whatsoever!" And, most off-puttingly, Wolfe presumes to enter the minds of one and all: he's with near-drowing Gus Grissom ("Cox. . . That face up there!—it's Cox. . . Cox knew how to get people out of here! . . . Cox! . . ."); he's with Betty Grissom angry about not staying at Holiday Inn ("Now. . . they truly owed her"); and, in a crude hatchet-job, he's with John Glenn furious at Al Shepard's being chosen for the first flight, pontificating to the others about their licentious behavior, or holding onto his self-image during his flight ("Oh, yes! I've been here before! And I am immune! I don't get into corners I can't get out of! . . . The Presbyterian Pilot was not about to foul up. His pipeline to dear Lord could not be clearer"). Certainly there's much here that Wolfe is quite right about, much that people will be interested in hearing: the P-R whitewash of Grissom's foul-up, the Life magazine excesses, the inter-astronaut tensions. And, for those who want to give Wolfe the benefit of the doubt throughout, there are emotional reconstructions that are juicily shrill. But most readers outside the slick urban Wolfe orbit will find credibility fatally undermined by the self-indulgent digressions, the stylistic excesses, and the broadly satiric, anti-All-American stance; and, though The Right Stuff has enough energy, sass, and dirt to attract an audience, it mostly suggests that until Wolfe can put his subject first and his preening writing-persona second, he probably won't be a convincing chronicler of anything much weightier than radical chic.

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1979

ISBN: 0312427565

Page Count: 370

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

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by Tom Wolfe

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BOOK TO SCREEN

WHY FISH DON'T EXIST

A story of loss, love, and the hidden order of life.

by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

A quirky wonder of a book.

A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.

Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full  fifth  of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

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The Selfish Gene

Richard dawkins.

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

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أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا أنا مش عارفنى أنا تهت منى أنا مش أنا

روح ع الأشرافية ولأصحابك أشكي قول أني نكدية وشو ما بدك أحكي قول عني أنانية قول مش رومانسية     فش كل خلقك فيي أنا بعرف إنك مقهور وقلبك راح يفقع .!!   شوف حالك عليي تكبر لا تشبع أزرع كل حقدك فيا فل وما ترجع

“Una gallina es solo la forma en que un huevo hace otro huevo“ (Samuel Butler 1835-1902)

“Un cuerpo es el medio empleado por los genes para preservar los genes inalterados.”

“Los memes se propagan en el acervo de memes al saltar de un cerebro a otro mediante un proceso que… puede llamarse imitación... Si los memes de los cerebros son análogos a los genes, deben ser estructuras cerebrales autorreplicadoras, patrones reales de conexión neuronal que se reconstruyen a sí mismos en un cerebro después de otro.”

“ There are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the galaxy.”

“What is the good of sex? This is an extremely difficult question for the evolutionist to answer. Most serious attempts to answer it involve sophisticated mathematical reasoning.”

“Contraception is sometimes attacked as 'unnatural'. So it is, very unnatural. The trouble is, so is the welfare state. I think that most of us believe the welfare state is highly desirable. But you cannot have an unnatural welfare state, unless you also have unnatural birth- control, otherwise the end result will be misery even greater than that which obtains in nature.”

Female greenflies can bear live, fatherless, female offspring, each one containing all the genes of its mother. (Incidentally, an embryo in her mother's 'womb' may have an even smaller embryo inside her own womb. So a greenfly female may give birth to a daughter and a grand- daughter simultaneously, both of them being equivalent to her own identical twins.)

“Mantises … When they mate, the male cautiously creeps up on the female, mounts her, and copulates. If the female gets th e chance, she will eat him, beginning by biting his head off, either as the male is approaching, or immediately after he mounts, or after they separate.”

"the notable thing about animal fights is that they are formal tournaments, played according to rules like those of boxing or fencing. Animals fight with gloved fists and blunted foils. Threat and bluff take the place of deadly earnest. Gestures of surrender are recognized by victors, who then refrain from dealing the killing blow or bite that our naive theory might predict.”

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Science » Popular Science

The selfish gene, by richard dawkins, recommendations from our site.

“I really picked this book because for me, and I think for lots of people, it was an entry point into thinking about applying evolutionary principles to human behaviour. In a very user-friendly way, it gives you some of the basic tools you can use to start thinking about it…The book was synthesising a bunch of ideas that had been developed by a variety of researchers, in particular William Hamilton and Robert Trivers, on how we can think about evolutionary processes to explain things like cooperation and altruism, which has been a long-running puzzle. It lays out a particular way of thinking where you think about genes from the genes’ eye view. You think about what is good for the gene, and that allows you to solve a bunch of puzzles about altruism, about why people would help those who have copies of those same genes…I put it on the list because it was inspirational to me, though I like to think we now have an enriched way of looking at things that goes beyond what we did in the 70s. “ Read more...

The best books on Cultural Evolution

Joseph Henrich

“This is really extremely famous and I think rightly so – The Selfish Gene , Richard Dawkins: I love that book. When you look at theories in physics, they are really phrased very precisely with mathematical formulae, and if you are trying to make a prediction of a physical system you can do this extremely well with very high precision…However, when you look at more complicated things like biology and you want to say: well, can I look at a species and say what’s going to happen in terms of evolution in 10,000 years, then of course it’s very difficult, and I don’t think anyone has a clue how to make this more mathematical. But the first time I saw how far you can go, and I was really surprised, was with The Selfish Gene …Dawkins’s book was the first time that someone tried to make the theory very mathematical, and explain it fully, and tried to make predictions based on it.” Read more...

The best books on Quantum Theory

Vlatko Vedral , Physicist

Other books by Richard Dawkins

The blind watchmaker by richard dawkins, the extended phenotype by richard dawkins, the god delusion by richard dawkins, the ancestor's tale: a pilgrimage to the dawn of evolution by richard dawkins & yan wong, the magic of reality: how we know what's really true by richard dawkins, our most recommended books, the elegant universe by brian greene, gathering moss: a natural and cultural history of mosses by robin wall kimmerer, on human nature by edward o. wilson, a lab of one’s own: science and suffrage in the first world war by patricia fara, voyage of the beagle by charles darwin, mutants by armand marie leroi.

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The 100 best nonfiction books: No 10 – The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

An intoxicating renewal of evolutionary theory that coined the idea of the meme and paved the way for Professor Dawkins’s later, more polemical works

W hat is man, and what are we for? Remarkably, it was not until Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 that anyone, in our history, had thought methodically to address the reason for our existence. Darwin’s answer to this simple question was to show that every earthly species – chimps or humans, lizards or fungus – had evolved over about 3bn years by the process known as natural selection.

But then, after the furious controversy surrounding that publication, Darwin’s celebrated theory fell into neglect and misuse. A hundred years later, in the heady, innovative atmosphere of the 1960s, a new generation of young and ambitious evolutionary biologists found themselves confronted with a rare opportunity: the rediscovery and renewal of evolutionary theory. Enter Richard Dawkins, a young Oxford zoologist who had been born, and partly raised, in Africa. Following some notable pioneers such as WD Hamilton and GC Williams, Dawkins pulled together many disparate strands of thought about the nature of natural selection, and organised them into a conceptual framework with far-reaching implications for our understanding of Darwin’s ideas. He called it The Selfish Gene , a title he later considered to contain an unconscious echo of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant . Dawkins was convinced that an amplified and developed version of neo-Darwinism “could make everything about life fall into place, in the heart as well as in the brain”. His book would extol, he wrote, a “gene’s-eye view of evolution”.

It was Dawkins’s simple, but profound, proposition that “the fundamental unit of selection, and therefore of self-interest, is not the species, nor the group, nor even, strictly, the individual. It is the gene, the unit of heredity.” He acknowledged that this might sound “at first like an extreme view” but proceeded to explore all the major themes of social theory in the light of this idea, conducting his survey in a highly readable and entertaining way. With chapters such as “Genesmanship”, “Battle of the Sexes”, and “Nice Guys Finish First”, he tackled concepts of altruism and selfishness, the evolution of aggressive behaviour, kinship theory, sex ratio theory, reciprocal altruism, deceit, and the natural selection of sex differences. In hindsight, it seems appropriate that The Selfish Gene should have been published soon after The Joy of Sex and The Female Eunuch .

From his first page, Dawkins unfolds an exhilarating and combative narrative of the gene’s-eye view of life with infectious brio. The Selfish Gene , he declares, should be read “almost as though it were science fiction. It is designed to appeal to the imagination.” Part of the book’s compulsion derives from Dawkins’s appealing certainty that he is exploring a scientific world in which “we are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes”. This insight, he reports, is “a truth which still fills me with astonishment”.

Much of this book’s appeal lies in its author’s barely suppressed excitement, prose that bubbles over with the intoxication of a brilliant new approach. He buttonholes his readers; he dazzles with paradox and provocation. In an introduction to a later edition of The Selfish Gene , Dawkins describes its gestation: it was a book written in extremis (the power cuts and industrial strife of the early 1970s) and, as he says, “in a fever of excitement”. For the young author, it was, in hindsight, “one of those mysterious periods in which new ideas are hovering in the air”.

So zeitgeisty was it that, from first publication, the reception of The Selfish Gene was highly favourable. Initially, it was not seen as a controversial book, Dawkins wrote later. “Its reputation for contentiousness took years to grow.” Eventually it would become regarded as a work of extreme radicalism. But, he goes on, “over the very same years as the book’s reputation for extremism has escalated, its actual content has seemed less and less extreme”.

This is undeniable: while The Selfish Gene grew out of orthodox neo-Darwinian ideas, it actually expressed Darwinism in a way that Darwin himself might have welcomed. Rather than focus on the individual organism, it looked at nature from the perspective of the gene. It was, claimed Dawkins, “a different way of seeing, not a different theory”.

It also addressed itself to “three imaginary readers”: the generalist, the expert and the student. This was a high-low cohort that swiftly propelled it on to bestseller lists worldwide. Moreover, in keeping with the temper of the times, The Selfish Gene announced itself, from the first, as “a book about animal behaviour”, arguing that “we, like all other animals, are (survival) machines created by our genes”. For Dawkins, “we” did not mean just people. He wanted his description to embrace all animals, plants, bacteria and viruses. “The total number of survival machines on Earth,” he wrote, “is very difficult to count.” Even the total number of species is unknown, he conceded. “Taking just insects alone, the number of individual insects may be a million million million.”

Dawkins – in a style that would recur in later polemical books such as The God Delusion – was never less than comprehensive in his ambitions. Here, he used “survival machine” rather than “animal” because he wanted to encompass all plants and humans, too. His argument should apply, he said, to any and all “evolved beings”.

Orthodox neo-Darwinian he might be, but in chapter 11, he coined an idea about cultural transmission that quickly went viral within the global intellectual community: the meme, or replicator, a unit of imitation. Examples of memes include tunes, idea, catchphrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches: “Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.” Shortly after this analysis, Dawkins characterised “God” as a meme. Thus, pages 192-193 of The Selfish Gene might be said to encapsulate most of Richard Dawkins’s brilliant career, in which the theory of evolution came to offer such a satisfying and complete explanation for the complexity of life on Earth that there could no longer be a place for the possibility of God’s design.

A signature sentence

“A monkey is a machine that preserves genes up trees, a fish is a machine that preserves genes in the water; there is even a small worm that preserves genes in German beer mats. DNA works in mysterious ways.”

Three to compare

GC Williams: Adaptation and Natural Selection (1961) EO Wilson: On Human Nature (1978) WD Hamilton: Narrow Roads of Gene Land, Vol I (1996)

The Selfish Gene is published by Oxford University Press (£8.99). Click here to order a copy for £7.19

• Richard Dawkins
• 100 best nonfiction books of all time
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The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins: Book Review & Insights

The concept of the “selfish gene” revolutionized the way we understand evolution and natural selection, thanks to Richard Dawkins’ seminal work, “The Selfish Gene,” first published in 1976.

In this book, Dawkins posits that the unit of selection in evolution is not the individual organism, nor the group or species, but the gene. This perspective shifts the focus of evolutionary strategy to the level of genes, competing for survival and replication across generations.

Dawkins’ theory has not only deepened our understanding of the biological world but also sparked debates across various disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and computer science.

I am intrigued by the possibilities of gene editing for our future, and this is the fourth book I read on the subject. Previously read – A Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg, Regenesis by Ed Regis and George Church, and The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson .

This review, along with insights, quotes, and key takeaways, aims to delve into the essence of Dawkins’ argument, explore its implications, and assess its enduring influence on the scientific community and beyond.

The Premise of “The Selfish Gene”

At the heart of “The Selfish Gene” is the idea that genes are selfish entities, driven by the imperative to replicate themselves. Dawkins uses the term “selfish” not in a moral sense, but as a metaphor to describe the gene-centered view of evolution.

According to this view, organisms are mere “vehicles” or “survival machines” that genes build and use to ensure their survival and replication. This radical rethinking of the process of natural selection emphasizes that the behaviors of organisms, including altruism and cooperation, can be explained by the benefits they offer to the genes involved.

Insights and Key Takeaways

• Gene-Centered View of Evolution : Dawkins’ work underscores the power of looking at evolution from the perspective of genes. This viewpoint elucidates many complex biological phenomena, providing clear explanations for the existence of certain traits and behaviors.
• Altruism Explained : One of the most compelling arguments in the book is the explanation of altruistic behavior through the lens of genetic benefit. Dawkins introduces the concept of “kin selection” and the gene’s ability to promote behaviors that enhance the survival chances of related individuals, thereby ensuring the gene’s continuation.
• Extended Phenotype : Dawkins extends the concept of phenotype to include not just the physical body of an organism, but also the effects a gene has on its environment. This idea, further explored in Dawkins’ subsequent work, highlights the influence genes can exert beyond the organism, shaping ecosystems and behaviors.
• Meme Theory : In the final chapters, Dawkins introduces the concept of memes, or units of cultural transmission, drawing a parallel with genes in the realm of ideas and culture. This has opened up new avenues for understanding cultural evolution and has been influential in various fields.
• Impact on Biology and Beyond : “The Selfish Gene” has had a profound impact not only on evolutionary biology but also on psychology, economics, and computer science. Its ideas have been applied to understand complex systems, including the internet, market dynamics, and social behaviors.

Quotes and Meanings from “The Selfish Gene”

Richard Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene” is rich with thought-provoking quotes that encapsulate its groundbreaking ideas and challenge conventional understandings of evolution, altruism, and the nature of life itself. Below, we explore some notable quotes from the book, delving into their meanings and the insights they provide into Dawkins’ theory.

“We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”

This quote underscores the central thesis of the book: that organisms, including humans, exist primarily as vessels through which genes replicate themselves. It highlights the mechanistic and unconscious nature of survival and reproduction, suggesting that at a fundamental level, the complexity of life and behavior can be understood through the lens of gene propagation.

“The world is a battleground, and the replicators are the armies that fight it out.”

Here, Dawkins frames the process of evolution as a relentless struggle for survival and replication among genes, which he terms “replicators.” This militaristic analogy emphasizes the competitive aspect of evolution, where only the genes that can effectively use resources, including the bodies of organisms, to ensure their continuation will prevail.

“Let us try to teach generosity and altruism because we are born selfish.”

In this quote, Dawkins acknowledges the inherent self-interest encoded in our genes but advocates for the cultivation of altruistic and generous behaviors as a means to transcend our genetic predispositions. It reflects the nuanced view that, despite the selfish nature of genes, humans possess the capacity for cultural evolution that can promote societal well-being and cooperation.

“Genes are not conscious, they do not have goals or aims. But they behave as if they do.”

Dawkins clarifies that genes do not have desires or intentions in the way that conscious beings do. Instead, their “behavior” is the result of natural selection favoring genes that effectively replicate. This anthropomorphism helps readers understand the dynamic processes of evolution without implying that genes have a will or consciousness.

“The gene is the basic unit of selfishness and altruism.”

This succinct statement encapsulates the idea that altruistic behavior can be explained through the lens of genetic self-interest. Altruism, from this perspective, is not contradictory to selfishness at the genetic level but is instead a strategy that genes “use” to ensure their replication, particularly when it benefits genetically related individuals.

“Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.”

Dawkins uses this quote to highlight the power of natural selection to produce complex organisms and behaviors from simple beginnings. It is a rebuttal to the argument that the complexity of life is too improbable to have arisen without a designer, emphasizing instead the cumulative power of natural selection over vast timescales.

“Our genes made us. We animals exist for their preservation and are nothing more than their throwaway survival machines.”

This quote reinforces the central theme of the book, viewing organisms as temporary carriers or “machines” that genes use for their survival. It emphasizes the transient nature of individual organisms in the broader context of genetic continuity.

Implications of the Selfish Gene Theory

The selfish gene theory, by shifting the focus of evolution to the level of genes, has profound implications for understanding biological and behavioral phenomena. It suggests that behaviors in animals and humans can often be better understood through the lens of gene survival. For example, the seemingly altruistic behavior of bees sacrificing themselves for the hive makes sense when one considers that they are helping to propagate their genes, shared by the hive’s queen.

By personifying genes as “selfish,” Dawkins not only provides a compelling narrative to explain complex biological phenomena but also challenges readers to reconsider their assumptions about life, cooperation, and the nature of human society.

Criticisms and Debates

Despite its significant influence, “The Selfish Gene” has not been without its critics. Some biologists argue that focusing exclusively on genes overlooks the importance of organism-level selection and environmental factors. Others have taken issue with the book’s interpretation of altruism, suggesting that Dawkins’ gene-centric view oversimplifies complex social behaviors.

• Group Selection Theory : Critics argue that group selection – where natural selection acts on groups, rather than individuals or genes can better explain certain cooperative behaviors. Dawkins, however, contends that any benefit to groups or species is a byproduct of gene-level selection.
• Cultural and Environmental Factors : Some scientists and scholars argue that Dawkins underestimates the role of culture, environment, and developmental processes in shaping behavior and evolution.
• Meme Theory Controversy : The concept of memes, while influential, has been criticized for its lack of empirical grounding and the difficulty of applying rigorous scientific methods to cultural evolution.

Dawkins’ Response and Subsequent Developments

Richard Dawkins has responded to many of these criticisms through his writings and public engagements, clarifying misconceptions and expanding on his theories. He has emphasized the explanatory power of the selfish gene concept while acknowledging the complexity of evolution and the multifaceted influences on behavior.

Broader Impact and Legacy

“The Selfish Gene” has left an indelible mark on how we think about evolution and ourselves. It has influenced fields beyond biology, including psychology, sociology, and computer science, providing a framework for understanding complex systems and behaviors. The book has also contributed to popular discussions on genetics and human nature, challenging us to reconsider our views on cooperation, competition, and the essence of life.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the main argument of “The Selfish Gene”?

The book posits that the primary unit of selection in evolution is not the individual organism or species, but the gene itself. Organisms are viewed as vehicles that genes use to ensure their survival and replication.

How does “The Selfish Gene” explain altruistic behavior?

Dawkins explains altruism through the lens of genetic self-interest, particularly through concepts like kin selection, where genes promote behaviors that benefit related individuals carrying the same genes.

What is the significance of the term “selfish” in the context of the book?

“Selfish” is used metaphorically to describe genes’ drive to replicate themselves, not implying any conscious intent or moral judgment.

How did “The Selfish Gene” influence the field of evolutionary biology?

It shifted the perspective of evolutionary study to the gene level, offering new explanations for behavioral and evolutionary phenomena and sparking debates and further research.

What criticisms have been leveled against “The Selfish Gene”?

Critics argue that it oversimplifies complex behaviors, underestimates the role of group selection and environmental factors, and its concept of memes lacks empirical support.

What is the extended phenotype, as discussed in the book?

The extended phenotype refers to the idea that the influence of a gene can extend beyond the physical body of the organism it inhabits, affecting the environment and other organisms.

How does Dawkins address the concept of memes?

Memes are introduced as cultural analogues to genes, representing units of cultural transmission or ideas that replicate and evolve through human interaction.

What is kin selection, and how does it relate to altruism?

Kin selection is a form of natural selection that explains how altruistic behaviors can evolve when they benefit the reproductive success of relatives, thereby promoting the genes responsible for such behaviors.

How has “The Selfish Gene” impacted popular understanding of evolution?

It has popularized the gene-centered view of evolution, influencing how the public perceives natural selection, altruism, and the nature of biological life.

Can the ideas from “The Selfish Gene” be applied to human society and culture?

Yes, especially through the concept of memes, the book offers a framework for understanding cultural evolution and the spread of ideas.

What is gene-centered evolution, and why is it important?

Gene-centered evolution focuses on the role of genes in driving evolutionary processes, highlighting the importance of genetic competition and cooperation in shaping traits and behaviors.

How do genes influence behavior, according to Dawkins?

Genes influence behavior by coding for traits that enhance the survival and reproduction chances of the organism, which indirectly benefits the gene’s replication.

What role do memes play in cultural evolution?

Memes act as cultural replicators, spreading through imitation and variation, analogous to genetic transmission in biological evolution.

How does “The Selfish Gene” approach the concept of evolutionary stability?

It discusses evolutionary stable strategies as behaviors that, once adopted by a population, cannot be easily invaded by alternative strategies, emphasizing the role of genes in establishing these behaviors.

What implications does “The Selfish Gene” have for understanding human nature?

It suggests that many aspects of human behavior, including cooperation and competition, can be understood in the context of genetic self-interest and survival strategies.

How do critics view the applicability of “The Selfish Gene” to complex social behaviors?

Critics argue that complex social behaviors cannot be fully explained by gene-level selection and that Dawkins’ model overlooks the importance of culture, learning, and environmental influences.

What advancements in genetics and evolutionary biology have been influenced by “The Selfish Gene”?

The book has inspired research into genetic mechanisms of behavior, the nature of genetic replication, and the application of evolutionary principles to understanding human culture and society.

How does Dawkins defend “The Selfish Gene” against accusations of genetic determinism?

Dawkins clarifies that while genes influence behavior, they do not determine it in a fixed way; environmental interactions and chance also play significant roles.

What is the relevance of “The Selfish Gene” in contemporary discussions on genetics and evolution?

Its concepts continue to inform debates on genetic engineering, the nature of human behavior, and the ethical implications of our understanding of genetics.

How has the scientific community’s view of “The Selfish Gene” evolved?

While its core ideas remain influential, ongoing research and debates have nuanced the scientific community’s understanding of gene-centric evolution, incorporating more complex models of genetic and cultural evolution.

Conclusion and Reflections

Richard Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene” has played a pivotal role in shaping contemporary understanding of evolution, genetics, and behavior. Its concepts, while controversial, have sparked a broad and ongoing dialogue across scientific disciplines and beyond, demonstrating the power of scientific inquiry to challenge and expand our understanding of the natural world. Through its exploration of the gene-centered view of evolution, it encourages us to reconsider what drives the diversity and complexity of life on Earth, offering insights that remain as relevant today as they were at the time of its publication.

Gaurav Dhiman

Learner-in-Chief at Future Disruptor. A futurist, entrepreneur, and management consultant, who is passionate about learning, researching, experimenting, and building solutions through ideas and technologies that will shape our future.

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Understanding human behavior, “the selfish gene” – review.

In this classic, fascinating sociobiology text, Dawkins shows how mathematical analyses can help us understand the evolution of social behaviors in humans and other animals.

For much of the book, Dawkins uses game theory to show how differing strategies can come to coexist in populations. He does this with strategies of physical aggression (“hawk”, “dove”, “bully” etc.). He also uses this approach to explain how the sexes could have evolved and to analyze the interactions of various mating and infant-care strategies.

Dawkins also shows how mathematical models can explain the evolution of altruistic behaviors—i.e., behaviors that promote others’ survival while reducing the chances of survival of the altruistic individual. Here the analysis is based on the fundamental understanding that natural selection operates at the level of genes rather than organisms.

In the process of natural selection, random mutation creates differing alleles (versions) of genes that create different varieties of a feature (e.g. different eye colors, or different levels of aggression). The alleles that provide the organism with characteristics that best serve to reproduce that allele become increasingly common in the population. For example, an allele that confers resistance to a fatal disease will become more common because individuals who have the allele will be more likely to survive and have children who carry that allele.

By reducing the likelihood of survival, altruism reduces the likelihood of reproduction of individual organisms. However, an allele that creates an altruistic behavior could become common if that behavior preferentially benefited enough other individuals who also carried that allele: the process known as kin selection. For example, if an individual with one copy of an allele sacrificed their life to save the lives of two individuals who both carried a copy of that allele, the loss of the one copy would be compensated for by the preservation of two. Altruistic acts toward closer relatives are more likely to be of benefit to an allele because closer relatives are more likely to also have that allele.

In a similar vein, Dawkins elaborates the strategic advantages of reciprocal altruism and forgiveness using an analysis of “the prisoner’s dilemma” trust game

All of this makes for fascinating reading. However, in order to make his arguments more engaging and accessible to the general public, Dawkins takes three linguistic and logical shortcuts that can lead the reader to misunderstand the process of natural selection.

Dawkins makes the common mistake of referring to gene alleles as “genes.” Secondly, for much of the book he writes at the level of the individual organism rather than the allele. Thirdly, he writes as if genes—and animals—are thinking beings that consciously strategize with self-reproducing goals in mind.

Dawkins sometimes points out when he is taking the logical shortcuts, and they don’t compromise his mathematical analyses of specific strategies. However, he almost never restates his arguments in scientifically objective, allele-centered terms. As a result, these shortcuts can prompt the reader to misunderstand natural selection as a process in which genes direct individual organisms to engage in a dog eat dog competition for dominance.

When evolutionary theorists write of “survival of the fittest” they are referring to reproductive fitness, not the ability to win a fight. Indeed, Dawkins himself shows how non-aggressive strategies can come to stably co-exist with aggressive ones in a population.

Unfortunately, Dawkins himself seems to have succumbed to this misconception. On page 2 he writes: “I shall argue that the predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness. This gene selfishness will usually give rise to selfish behavior.”

Gene alleles don’t have attitudes to other alleles of the same gene, they simply code for characteristics, only a fraction of which have anything to do with social behavior. Is an allele that confers disease resistance “selfish”?

The alleles that become frequent in a population are the ones that code for characteristics that enhance their reproduction. Most mutations produce alleles that reduce the viability of the organism and hence of the allele. If one wanted to attribute a quality to alleles that become common it would be “lucky,” or “effective,” not “selfish.”

That said, reading “The Selfish Gene” was a pleasurable, at times even enlightening, experience for this reviewer. I strongly recommend this book, especially if you don’t already have a background in game theory or in the theory of kin selection.

Just be careful to step around the pitfalls that Dawkins falls into.

Si On Science

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Reviewed by Simon Veal on Sat Mar 25 2023

The title of this book refers to the gene as the fundamental unit of replication, acted on by natural selection. These genes act “selfishly” in that they become successful by propagating copies of themselves into the future. It’s a clever title, because it could be interpreted as having the alternative meaning that there is a gene for selfish behaviour, the possessors of which behave more selfishly and less altruistically. Maybe the title is too clever, because a lot of the book then tries to correct the obvious misunderstanding that organisms containing these “selfish” genes must therefore act selfishly. I think a lot of people over the years (especially people who haven’t read it) have carried the idea that the book is some kind of manifesto in favour of selfishness, or that it somehow denies the existence of altruism. Richard Dawkins has said, in the introductions to later editions, that better titles might have been ‘The Immortal Gene’ or ‘The Cooperative Gene’. Really, though, it portrays a gene’s eye view of evolution, and makes the case that this is the only perspective that makes any sense, and that allows us to reason coherently about the bodies and behaviours of organisms.

These behavours include cooperation and altruism, as well as selfish behaviours. The author sets out to explain how altruistic behaviour can evolve even when behaviour is controlled (or at least influenced) by genes that are acting only in their self-interest. There are various different explanations, covering kin selection (helping those closely related to you, and so helping copies of your own genes in those other individuals), cooperating and returning favours from individuals who have helped you in the past, and game theory considerations, where a cooperative strategy over the long term can benefit all individuals on average.

Another concept covered by the book is the concept of the evolutionarily stable strategy. This is a behavioural strategy that will tend to proliferate in a population due to two factors: (1) it does well against copies of itself, and (2) once it’s the dominant strategy, it cannot be displaced by other strategies.

One point the book makes repeatedly is to argue against the need for so-called “group selection” explanations to account for altruistic behaviour. In group selection, it’s posited that a group that has cooperative behaviour will out-compete a group (of the same species) that doesn’t. The theory presented here doesn’t require any form of group selection to work, and so it would seem to be unnecessary to invoke group selection to explain altruism. However, not much is said about whether group selection as a concept even makes sense. Are there any cases where group selection has been shown to happen? How would the mixing of genes between groups be prevented over the time periods required for group selection to occur?

The explanation of altruism as being in the interest of selfish genes may not fully satisfy everyone. Risking your life for your own child is one thing, but what about those who sacrifice their lives for unrelated strangers? This isn’t really covered in the book, but I don’t think it breaks the theory. During most of our evolution as humans, we would have been living in small tribes, in which there was a high chance of both relatedness and reciprocity. So a gene for “help everyone nearby” would have been just as effective as “help everyone I’m related to” (or “help everyone who is likely to be in a position to help me reciprocally in future”) and much simpler in operation. Now that we live in large cities, the behaviour just looks like general altruism towards everyone.

The final chapter in the 1976 edition (two subsequent chapters were added to the 1989 edition and later) is about “memes” which are cultural units of replication. This chapter predates the use of the term “meme” as it’s usually used today, to mean a shareable image and caption that gets spread around social media, although that type of meme is still a meme in the book’s sense. The definition here is wider though, and includes any type of thought that is transmissible between people, such as song lyrics, techniques for doing things, or ideas.

I read the 1989 edition (which is the version I had on my bookshelf from when I read it more than 20 years ago). It’s fair to say this book is one of my favourite science books and has influenced my thinking a lot. When I first read about the concept of our bodies being “survival machines” for our genes, I remember feeling a strange sense of vertigo at the idea that it was my genes that were the entity “in control”. But this way of looking at things also made a lot of sense to me. Dawkins keeps coming back to the gene’s eye view of evolution throughout the book, to make sure that his analogies and explanations make sense at this level. This is something that I also try to do when I’m reading about evolution in other books.

I really enjoyed (re-)reading this book. I find the writing style and explanations really clear; complex topics are conveyed carefully, step-by-step, in a way that allow you to really understand them.

There are a few little asides on the subject of religion in this book, and more in the endnotes. Dawkins is well-known as an atheist, and when I first read this book as a younger man I was cheering him on. I don’t disagree with him now, but they do seem quite off-topic for a book about genes, and I can see how the inclusion of these asides could put people off who are more sympathetic to religion and spirituality. This would be a shame, because they would be missing out on a clear and cogent account of how the gene’s eye view of evolution explains so much about the behaviour we see in the natual world, including such things as altruism.

All the editions of this book (1976, 1989, 2006 30th Anniversary Edition, and 2016 40th Anniversary Edition) contain (almost) the same main content, with the only differences being in the introductions, epilogues and endnotes, and a couple of extra chapters.

• The 1989 edition adds another preface (but removes the original 1976 preface by Robert L. Trivers), some comprehensive endnotes (which are worth reading) and two additional chapters. The endnotes mention one change that was made to the main text since the 1976 edition.
• The 2006 edition adds another preface, and reinstates the 1976 Robert L. Trivers preface. The main content and endnotes remain the same as the 1989 edition.
• The 2016 edition adds an epilogue, with the prefaces, main content and endnotes remaining the same as the 1989 edition.

Previous Review: The 4% Universe by Richard Panek

Next Review: A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein

© 2023 Si On Science

The Selfish Gene

Richard dawkins, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Richard Dawkins —the author of The Selfish Gene —is the sole voice of its story. He believes that evolution happens to genes, not species. He also thinks there is no gene for altruism (selfless or kind behavior). He thinks this is quite a radical view, because it implies that we humans are “lumbering robots,” programmed by our genes to help them—the genes—survive. He thinks this is as strange as “science fiction” but it’s actually the truth.

In his “Preface to the Second Edition” of The Selfish Gene , Dawkins says he is writing for three kinds of people: the general reader (for whom he has avoided technical language), the scientific expert (who might see something in his story that they perhaps overlooked in their more technical way of looking at things), and the student (who might find the book helpful in breaking down technical theories into everyday language).

Dawkins begins (in “Why Are People?”) by saying that Charles Darwin offered the first coherent account of why we are here—why we exist—when he formulated the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species . Evolutionists claim that the world’s biodiversity exists because the natural world became more complex over time (evolved) through small changes in the way organisms interacted with their environments (adaptations). Since organisms were competing for finite resources (such as food), those individual organisms best suited to their environments won out and survived to reproduce, passing their traits on to succeeding generations. This process is called natural selection. Darwin also calls it “survival of the fittest.” Dawkins, though, thinks that genes (and not species) are evolving through natural selection. He actually thinks if Darwin were alive long enough to know about genes, Darwin would think this too. Dawkins decides to offer an account of life on earth from the “gene’s perspective” to explain his view.

Dawkins starts at the beginning: in the earliest time in history, when our universe was “simplicity.” This is how he opens his second chapter, “Replicators.” He explains that the ancestors of our genes were created by accident when the first atoms latched together into molecules that could make copies of themselves by attracting atoms to connect in the same patterns. These molecules were the first replicators. Sometimes, copies produced by replicators are a little bit off. As a result, different replicators emerged that were competing for atoms. This set up the conditions for evolution to occur.

In the subsequent two chapters (“Immortal Coils and “The Gene Machine”), Dawkins explains that all living organisms, from single cells to humans, are effectively “ survival machines ” created by genes to protect themselves (or, to protect their atoms from being stolen by other replicators). This means that organisms exist because they keep genes alive, as copies of themselves, from generation to generation. Hypothetically, this process could go on forever, and so genes are technically immortal.

Over the next six chapters, Dawkins addresses selfishness and altruism in nature. First, Dawkins discusses aggression in animals, in a chapter aptly called “Aggression.” He thinks that when animals refrain from being aggressive, they’re not actually being altruistic. Rather, those behaviors increase the animal’s chance of surviving to reproduce and, therefore, to keep the animal’s genes in the gene pool. For example, a small animal is unlikely to win a fight with a large predator, and so its tendency to flee when it sees a large predator will keep it alive, and when that small animal reproduces its tendency to flee instead of fight will get passed on in the gene pool.

Dawkins moves on to discuss cooperation and conflict among family members in his chapters entitled “Genesmanship,” “Family Planning,” and “Battle of the Generations.” He argues that animals are mostly nice (but sometimes nasty) to their relatives because relatives share genes. Cooperation among “kin” makes shared genes more numerous in the gene pool overall. For example, when a bird gives his baby brother a share of his food, he is actually helping to keep his own genes alive. Those genes just happen to live in his brother’s body. Sometimes, it pays off to be “nasty” and preserve the genes in your own body. But sometimes, it pays more to be “nice” to your relatives, because it preserves those same genes in their bodies. Dawkins looks at the work of various researchers to argue that altruism among family members is roughly proportional to the genetic relatedness between two individuals. In this way, all altruistic behavior between relatives actually betrays “selfish” genes working behind the scenes to ensure their own survival.

Dawkins repeatedly stresses that genes aren’t actively choosing to be “selfish,” since genes aren’t conscious. Rather, genes provide instructions for building embryos, like “build an embryo that will have long legs” (this helps organisms run faster and escape from predators), or “build an embryo that will chirp when there’s food nearby” (this benefits a chick’s nearby genetic relatives). These behavioral traits are a blind gamble: they’re the result of genes randomly shuffling in and out of chromosomes in sex cells. If the resulting behavioral traits happen to keep the organism alive long enough to reproduce, the gene for that trait will be passed on.

In the next two chapters, entitled “Battle of the Sexes” and “You Scratch My Back, I’ll Ride on Yours,” Dawkins discusses mating, sex ratios, social insects (such as ants and bees), and cooperation between unrelated individuals. In each case, Dawkins tries to show that behavioral traits exist in nature because they enable genes to pass on from generation to generation. Dawkins uses a hypothetical scenario called The Prisoner’s Dilemma from game theory (which is the mathematics of strategic behavior) to show that when two individuals are interacting, those that survive to reproduce tend to help each other out at first, but won’t help again if the favor is not reciprocated. This means cooperation happens because it increases the individual’s chances of survival, which is a “selfish” motivation.

Group selectionists offer alternative explanations for all the behaviors Dawkins discusses in these six chapters. Group selectionists tend to assume that altruistic behavior in nature—evidenced by birds that pick parasites off each other’s backs, and “kamikaze” bees that die when they sting—exists so that the group as a whole has a better chance of survival. Dawkins’ goal is to dismantle this view, by showing that all seemingly altruistic behavior is really selfish behavior when it’s looked at from the “gene’s eye view.”

Dawkins then switches tracks to talk about human culture in his next chapter, “ Memes : The New Replicators.” He thinks that humans are different from most other organisms on earth because there are two kinds of evolution that affect human behavior. The first, as with all other organisms, is genetic evolution. The second is cultural evolution. Dawkins thinks cultural evolution happens through “memes.” Memes are things like ideas, catchy tunes, memorable images, and fashion trends that spread in a culture when they become numerous, by existing in different people’s brains. Memes compete with each other to be remembered and shared. A brain’s capacity for memory is finite, which sets up the conditions for evolution. The replicator in this kind of evolution is the meme. Memes are different from genes because they evolve much, much faster than genes do. This is why an English-speaking person today would have a hard time understanding the writings Geoffrey Chaucer (who wrote in English in the fourteenth century). Dawkins thinks that the concept of altruism comes from a meme, and not from a gene.

In his penultimate chapter, entitled “Nice Guys Finish First,” Dawkins revisits the topic of mutual cooperation to explore it more fully. He believes that all forms of strategic interaction in nature are versions of The Prisoner’s Dilemma in action. He stresses again that reciprocal altruism (or being “nice”) only exists when it increases a gene’s chances of survival.

The final chapter of The Selfish Gene , called “The Long Reach of the Gene” summarizes Dawkins arguments from another book of his called “ The Extended Phenotype. ” Dawkins thinks that genes bundle together as colonies or “cartels” that live in discrete bodies because this cooperation is more effective at keeping them alive. He also thinks that genes perpetuate themselves through the “bottleneck” process of sexual reproduction because it’s easier for evolution to happen when each generation starts anew from a single cell. If that single cell has a mutated gene in it, it automatically spreads to every cell in that organism. It’s no surprise, he says, that biologists initially got confused. When they started looking around, they saw organisms that reproduce, so they mistakenly assumed that either organisms or species of organisms were the things evolving. Although when you really think about it, Dawkins says, the boundaries of an “individual” are somewhat arbitrary. Some genes affect behaviors in other organism’s bodies (this happens when a parasite’s genes manipulate the body of its host). Some genes affect behaviors in the environment at large. This happens when organisms modify their environment and increase their chances of survival, for instance by building dams or nests. Dawkins thinks all of these examples are phenotypic effects . He thinks we tend to talk about individuals evolving in the context of their environments, but really, we should be talking about genes evolving in the context of their phenotypic effects.

Dawkins ends The Selfish Gene with an “Epilogue to the 40th Anniversary Edition.” In the epilogue, he argues that he hasn’t only been telling a story about genes. He’s also been telling a story about replicators. His story about genes in nature is just one example of a story about a replicator that evolves. His story about memes in a culture is another example of a replicator that evolves. There are likely many more stories to be told. He is certain, however, that every story about evolution—even on other planets—is a story about a replicator. In closing, Dawkins recalls that genes are technically immortal. This means that written in our genetic code is the history of life on earth, waiting to be decoded. He wonders what we could learn about dinosaurs or the origins of the universe if we were to start decoding the information in our genes. Perhaps, Dawkins says, he’ll work on that next, and share his insights when the 50th anniversary edition of The Selfish Gene is published.

The Selfish Gene: Summary & Review

“The Selfish Gene” explains evolution by looking at single genes as the basic units that are ultimately responsible for the selection process, and for driving our behavior.

3 Sentences Summary

Selfish gene – meaning, selfish genes make for selfish human beings, inclusive fitness & altruism, battle of the sexes, kins battles among each other, groups are equally selfish, nice guys finish first, humans often “disobey” genes, bigger than our genes, the selfish gene: review.

• Our genes don’t care about us
• We all have tendencies to maximize our benefits
• We can consciously decide to override our genes’ programming

The Selfish Gene – Summary

About The Author : Richard Dawkin is an ethologist and evolutionary psychologist. He has been a professor at Oxford for many years and also published the best-selling book “ The God Delusion “.

A gene is not selfish because only a sentient being can be selfish.

Richard Dawkins wants to express instead that natural selection does not care how the genes are passed along, but only that they will.

And the more likely it is that a gene will be passed along, the more likely it is that a certain trait that the gene gives birth to, will spread and eventually become common to a whole population.

If the animal or person carrying that gene will suffer or die in the process, again, natural selection does not care. Natural evolution can actually at times select behavior that is harmful to the organism as long as the organism passes its genes on.

Dawkins does present a view of very selfish human beings though.

He says human beings are selfish with a semblance of altruism.

The more selfish we can be while at the same time appearing the most altruist, the more benefits we can reap from the people around us while we are actually doing our own interests.

Dawkins says that any other being around us, especially if of the same species, can be an enemy in the struggle for survival and passing on genes.

Richard Dawkins popularized the concept of W. D. Hamilton .

That concept is that an individual does not simply want to maximize the number of children, but wants to maximize the spreading of his genes, which is not exactly the same thing.

For example, caring for a brother makes genetic sense because his children will share 1/4 of our genes.

The book doesn’t talk about it, but by extension, we share at least some genes and similarities with every other human being on the planet, so theoretically we tend to prefer to rescue a human being instead of an animal.

Richard Dawkins says that, from a genetic point of view, there’s much between a wife and a husband that can be divisive.

For example, while both want the good of their children, one could easily gain by investing less than the partner so as to have more to invest in other possible children.

There’s always a constant “arms race” where both genders, men especially, are trying to look better than what they actually are to lure a partner and the partner needs to be able to discern false advertising from the truth. Women also have a tendency to try to look less sexual for men so that men will want to marry and invest in them (we talk a bit about how men can disarm this tendency in text flirting for men ).

Dawkins says that a parent’s interest is to see as many of her children survive.

However, in some dire situations, she might sacrifice a son/daughter who’s too weak to increase the chances of survival of the other children.

Children also present a strategy in which they try to maximize the Parental Investment all for themselves.

Dawkins says that even when we form groups we display an apparent unselfish behavior, but it developed in the first place only because it helps spread the genes of each single individual.

Groups make genetic sense because we live in a non-zero-sum world: we can all profit from cooperation.

Dawkins presents the famous Prisoner’s Dilemma and how the simplest strategy to play the game won them all.

The strategy is called Tit for Tat always gives first, never “cheats” first but always retaliates when cheated. Tit for That drove away cheating behavior until everyone cooperated.

For more on “tit for tat” check out “ The Moral Animal “ and “ The Origins of Virtue “.

Humans are far more complex and have built civilizations that often “disobey” genes.

Contraceptives and the use of porn instead of copulation are such an example.

Also, many elements of culture do not always seem to have a direct connection with natural selection.

Importantly, Richard Dawkins says, we evolved a neo-cortex and a brain, which allows us to step back, understand what our genes want and decide if we want to resist.

We all love sugar, for example, because of natural evolution, but we can force ourselves to eat less when we see it’s not actually helping our organism anymore.

Or we can consciously decide not to have children.

Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to do

When I first read The Selfish Gene I was in awe.

I considered it the best anything I had ever read, the most profound book and expletive book ever.

I also have an interesting story connected to The Selfish Gene. As soon as I finished reading the book, I went to Facebook to check if there were any pages for it or something (back then I had just opened the account a few days prior). There wasn’t any group, but I found a person with that name. It was a girl. I left it at that.

Years later I was living in Prague and was out at a nightclub. A girl approached me and we started talking. Wanna guess who she was? Yep, it was Selfish Gene.

I wish I could share a happy ending story and tell you she was nice and all. She was everything but :), but I still think the story was pretty damn crazy.

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Lucio Buffalmano

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The Selfish Gene (Popular Science) 2nd Edition

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• ISBN-10 0192860925
• ISBN-13 978-0192860927
• Edition 2nd
• Publisher Oxford University Press
• Publication date October 25, 1990
• Part of series Oxford Landmark Science
• Language English
• Dimensions 7.69 x 0.78 x 5.06 inches
• Print length 368 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 2nd edition (October 25, 1990)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192860925
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0192860927
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.7 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.69 x 0.78 x 5.06 inches
• #1,014 in Genetics (Books)
• #50,897 in Unknown
• #141,603 in Health, Fitness & Dieting (Books)

About the author

Richard dawkins.

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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The Selfish Gene Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The Selfish Gene explains the process of evolution in biology using genes as its basic unit, showing how they manifest in the form of organisms, what they do to ensure their own survival, how they program our brains, which strategies have worked best throughout history and what makes humans so special in this context.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

The selfish gene review, audio summary, who would i recommend the selfish gene summary to.

The Selfish Gene is one of Tai Lopez’s all time favorites. I remember seeing it sit close to the top of his book list . He kept talking about it in the first version of his 67 Steps as well. I considered getting it, but thought it was really complicated at the time, so I’ve been putting it off for way too long.

I loved biology in high school, it’s one of the subjects I majored in, and I’m really happy that Blinkist made this book more accessible to me. Originally published in 1976, Richard Dawkins’ book argues that genes are the basic unit of evolution, not individual organisms or even species. Due to their naturally selfish behavior, genes merely use organisms as mechanisms to ensure their own survival. Different body features, behaviors, and even altruistic actions are nothing but tools for them.

And yet, sometimes animals and humans escape this disillusioning picture.

Here are 3 lessons from The Selfish Gene that’ll show you we might not be that selfish after all:

• Sometimes mutually altruistic behaviors benefit the genes of two different organisms.
• Humans have managed to splice off culture with its own evolutionary process.
• Our ability to simulate and foresee allows us to overcome the downside of our selfish genes.

Are you ready for a trip down Darwin lane? Let’s stroll along the path of evolution!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Even though mutually altruistic behavior is atypical, it can sometimes benefit the genes of two different organisms.

Because genes are selfish, a lot of the relationships among organisms in nature end up being so-called zero-sum games : there’s always one clear winner and one clear loser. When a hawk chases a dove, either the dove ends up getting eaten or the hawk starves.

In a non-zero-sum game though, both parties can team up against a third party (which can be nature itself, for example) to create a win-win situation. For example, if you and your friend are clients at the same bank, and the bank makes an individual offer to both of you for a great set of stock tips, but wants to charge $5,000, then just one of you could take the offer and you split the cost, instead of paying $5,000 each for the same set of tips.

Sometimes this kind of thinking pays off in nature too. For example, ants “milk” little insects called aphids, because the sweet secretions they produce are nourishing. In exchange, aphids benefit from having strong fighters like the ants around to protect them. The ants even take baby aphids in custody inside their ant hills to raise and protect them from predators.

While the selfish motives of the genes of each species stay the same, mutual altruism leads to the best result .

Lesson 2: We’ve spliced off the element of culture and given it its own evolutionary cycle.

Humans are special. We’ve evolved far beyond the instinctive survival-thinking our genes originally drove us towards. For example, something as complex and various as human culture (which includes things like language, religion, fashion, art, customs, diet, etc.) can’t possibly be the result of genes striving for survival.

Instead, culture can be seen as a spin-off, separate from biology, created by humans, that relies on the same evolutionary principles . Just like the gene is the basic element of biological evolution, a meme is the basic element of culture. Since genes can be copied across organisms, they’re near-immortal, and memes are the same – the smallest unit of culture that has a chance of being immortal – for example a certain melody, a powerful idea, or a video.

Memes also compete, in their case for human attention and memory. If a meme is forgotten, it dies, so like genes, memes cooperate to form complex entities, similar to organisms. For example, the Catholic Church is a huge set of memes, such as certain ideas, rituals, behaviors, clothes and architectural styles, all centered around the meme of God.

This explains how ideas like celibacy, the practice of abstaining from marriage and sex, can survive. It’s counter-intuitive to the selfishness of genes, but as long as the idea survives in the evolutionary system of culture by being part of an entity like church, this meme is considered a success.

Lesson 3: Humanity can overcome the downsides of selfish genes thanks to simulation and foresight.

While mutual altruism can sometimes have short-term benefits for the lifespan of individual organisms, it’s usually still based on selfish intentions. In a few cases though, an even better solution would be to abandon our immediate survival interests altogether and cooperate for the long term.

For example, in the hawks vs. doves example above, where doves always try to flee and hawks always attack until they win or are seriously injured, something called a “conspiracy of doves” could increase survival for both species in the long run. If all animals in the population “agreed” to act like doves, then they could live in peace and without harm alongside each other. Hawks would just eat the doves that are sick or about to die and avoid injury, doves wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted down all the time – and both could reproduce.

Genes aren’t conscious, they can’t foresee and simulate the future like we can, so they can never choose a “conspiracy of doves” scenario. But we can. By abandoning our selfish motives and splicing off from biology, like we have done with culture, will allow us to do what’s best for the survival of the human species in the long run .

This summary could’ve been three times as long. There is a ton of great information in The Selfish Gene . Even if you’ve slept all the way through biology class in high school, this book can catch you up on at least 70% of what’s important within a few hours. Highly recommended!

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account:

The 17 year old farmer daughter, who’s in touch with animals a lot, the 53 year old, very engaged and devoted member of a club, organization, church or movement, and anyone who wonders how genes are passed on.

Last Updated on August 1, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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Book Review: The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins

“The Gene is immortal”, said Richard Dawkins in an interview with the Royal Institution, when asked about the inspiration behind his brainchild that is “The Selfish Gene”. I had stumbled upon the video of this interview while surfing YouTube one night and although I’m no Biology major, the content of Dawkins’ answer instantly grabbed my attention. He goes on to further explain how some genes show similarity to those that existed hundreds of years ago, and this intrinsic fact is in itself enough to understand the importance of preserving the good genes, so as to advance a species. 

Although usually, this short interview would’ve been enough to convince me to pick the book up, I kept forestalling it, given the extent of biology that seemed to embellish the book, however, a chance encounter on a family WhatsApp group, wherein an “unhealthy” discussion of politics led one of my uncles to quote this book and explain how in a world full of hawks and doves, it’s neither the hawk nor the dove that survives eternally, but the majority’s perception of the goodness of being a hawk or dove circumstantially that dictates who lives on. Now I’m immediately intrigued and I place an order for the book immediately. 

Very few books have the power of really blowing your mind away, and you’d think what’s so different about a book written in the ‘70s based on a study as technical as Biology, but just like most, I would be proved wrong. The Selfish Gene is anything but a comforting read, I mean who really wants to be taught that the sum total of all actions that have led humanity to advance this far has been a zero-sum of selfish assertive drives where there’s always a clear winner and loser, there’s always the better gene and the worse gene (yes, I’m looking at you Alabama), and there’s always those who will fight the belief that an altruistic model never really is altruistic if you look closely. It reminds me of the quote from “Now you see me”, “The closer you look, the lesser you see”.

The foundation of the Selfish Gene is the fact that a group/species can survive only if individuals behave in their genetic self-interest and ensure that their genes are passed on. He explains how Natural Selection favours some genes more than others not because of their intrinsic nature, but by virtue of the consequences, which are dictated by choices, choices that would often be frowned upon usually. This reminds me of another conversation my friends and I had quite a while back on the topic of “Why empathy doesn’t dictate the answer to “why do we kill some animals over the other “”. The evolutionary development of some species to adapt to civilizations and humanity, and making them useful in whatever way possible is the reason for their advancement as a species. It elucidates the result of their inherent genetic constitution to be self-driven to find purpose and meaning in the lives of human beings. 

Dawkins breaks down the Gene as the fundamental unit by dissecting a civilization into groups of people (family), which further stems from multiple individuals, and each individual is a direct result of their “unique” genetic constitution. This very understanding could be elemental in our understanding of the fact that the gene is king. If you want to advance something, start at the grassroots. We often misinterpret selfish acts as acts of altruism, kind of how Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S says “There are no unselfish good deeds”, and while the funny naive Joey has often been a subject of ridicule, this one quote does stand out. Take the example of worker bees. This variant of bees are responsible for defending the hive and doing the grunt of manual work, and that being said, every time they sting an intruder, they themselves die. While many have interpreted this as an act of unselfish behaviour, defending the fort (probably playing the soundtrack from “Braveheart” in the background), there is genetic causation as to why the worker bees are put to this task. The worker bees are inherently sterile, hence we see that taking one for the team is for the sheer purpose of advancing their species by carrying out their duties as the protector. A similar example, seen very commonly in wildlife, wherein the mother would sacrifice herself to save her cubs, not as an act of heroism, but because even animals are genetically coded to first look towards the advancement of their species. That’s what got them this far. As a member of the species, incapable of reproduction, it only makes sense to preserve her progeny who can go on to advance their species and carry on the genes. 

The Selfish Gene, although built on this foundation of “Anti-Altruism”, does dive deep into many niche examples and instances wherein the author illustrates the existence of the “Selfish Gene”, wherein the behaviour that dictated the action can be analyzed and understood as one which is motivated by selfish interests and can be justified as consequences that will eventually progress that species. However, there is a lot of room for misinterpretation. While on one hand we are handed these harsh truths, Dawkins does make it clear that he doesn’t suggest how we humans “ought” to behave, but rather he’s just a medium by which we can understand the factual relevance of how a species evolves and progresses. Although I’m more of a Star Wars man, Star Trek’s famous quote “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one” does come to mind, and that is the crux idea behind the book. We find ourselves muddled with information from all sides, but “The Selfish Gene” is a very lucid interpretation of genetic evolution which can be understood by anyone and everyone, and reading it has indeed provided new perspectives which are definitely worth finding. 

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• BOOK REVIEW
• 08 April 2024

Survival of the nicest: have we got evolution the wrong way round?

• Jonathan R. Goodman 0

Jonathan R. Goodman is a research associate at Cambridge Public Health, University of Cambridge, UK. His first book, Invisible Rivals , will be published in 2025.

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Humpback whales often forage in groups, which can help to corral the small crustaceans that they feed on. Credit: Tony Wu/NPL/SPL

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Selfish Genes to Social Beings: A Cooperative History of Life Jonathan Silvertown Oxford Univ. Press (2024)

The fact that all life evolved thanks to natural selection can have depressing connotations. If ‘survival of the fittest’ is the key to evolution, are humans hardwired for conflict with one another? Not at all, says evolutionary biologist Jonathan Silvertown in his latest book, Selfish Genes to Social Beings . On the contrary, he argues, many phenomena in the natural world, from certain types of predation to parasitism, rely on cooperation. Thus “we need no longer fret that human nature is sinful or fear that the milk of human kindness will run dry”.

Silvertown uses examples from genes, bacteria, fungi, plants and animals to emphasize that cooperation is ubiquitous in nature. For instance, bacteria called rhizobia thrive in the root nodules of legumes — and turn nitrogen from the air into a soluble form that the plants can use. Some beetles cooperate to bury animal corpses that would be too large for any single insect to manage alone, both reducing the risk of other animals stealing food and providing a nest for beetle families to live in.

It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life

And many bacteria indicate their presence to each other using a chemical-signalling system called quorum sensing, which is active only when members of the same species are tightly packed together. This allows each cell to adjust its gene expression in a way that benefits the individuals in the group — to release a poison to kill other species, for instance, when enough bacteria are clustered together to mount a decent attack.

Even eighteenth-century piracy, says Silvertown, is a good example of effective cooperation. Pirates worked together on their ships, and used violence more often against outsiders than as an internal mechanism for law enforcement.

The author argues against the idea that cooperation is fundamentally at odds with competition — a view that emerged as a consequence of the sociobiology movement of the 1970s, in which some biologists argued that all human behaviour is reducible to a Darwinian need to be the ‘fittest’. The reality, as Silvertown shows, is not black and white.

Lichen is a composite organism, in which an alga lives within a fungus. Credit: Ashley Cooper/SPL

A matter of perspective

Take lichens, for instance — ‘composite organisms’ in which an alga or cyanobacterium lives within a fungus. The Swiss botanist Simon Schwendener, who discovered this relationship in the 1860s, argued that a lichen is a parasite: “Its slaves are green algals, which it has sought out or indeed caught hold of, and forced into its service.” Another way to view the relationship is that these algae and fungi are co-dependent — when they co-exist as a lichen, each grows better than it would alone. The line between parasitism and mutualism, competition and cooperation is not clear cut. It’s a matter of perspective.

A ‘user’s manual for the female mammal — how women’s bodies evolved

Similarly hazy boundaries are found in the biology of our own cells. More than a billion years ago, cells absorbed bacteria, which eventually evolved into structures called mitochondria that generate energy. Mitochondria are an essential part of the cells of all plants, animals and fungi alive today. They could be considered slaves, with cells the parasites. Or perhaps they are more like adopted family members.

Fundamentally, Silvertown proposes, cooperation in each of these situations stems from selfishness. Animals did not evolve to act for the benefit of their species, but to spread their own genes. Cooperation happens because mutual benefits are better, biologically speaking, than working alone, as the case of lichens effectively demonstrates.

If this seems heartless, it’s a reflection of the human tendency to apply human moral frameworks to biological phenomena. The use of emotionally charged words such as ‘slave’ and ‘adopted’ takes us away from rigorous science and leads us to see biological interactions as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, rather than as the morally agnostic, transactional processes that they truly are.

Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals

The anthropomorphizing of biological processes is a deep and current problem. The tendency to falsely imply agency in the natural world is an easy trap to fall into — consider how often people might say that a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 ‘wants’ to be transmitted, for instance, or that ants act ‘for the good of their colony’. I would have liked to hear more about Silvertown’s views on this category error. But in places, I felt that he could have made his implied understanding more explicit. Instead, he sometimes sacrifices that carefulness for unnecessary jokes, noting, for instance, that bacteria “are essentially singletons who like to party”.

The author could also have talked more about how the amorality inherent in most of the natural world does not apply to humans. Similarly to other organisms, our evolutionary heritage makes us social, but whether that sociality is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is a moral, not a scientific, question. This distinction from the other cooperative processes that Silvertown outlines could have been explained better.

Selfish Genes to Social Beings is at its best in the long, fascinating discussions of the complexity of cooperative behaviours across the natural world. For instance, although I’ve read a lot about biology, before reading this book I could never understand how RNA chains might have joined together and started the process of self-replication through which all life evolved. Silvertown can talk as easily about the compounds making up your genes as most people can about yesterday’s football match.

Nature 628 , 260-261 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00999-5

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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