Book Summary
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The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
The Selfish Gene
The million copy international bestseller, critically acclaimed and translated into over 25 languages. As influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication.
This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research. Forty years later, its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published.This 40th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today, as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews.Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.
The evolutionary biologist and author, Richard Dawkins, contends that biology's emphasis on creatures is mistaken and that life should be viewed from the perspective of individual genes attempting to replicate themselves across countless generations.
The book starts off with the odd assumption that scientists think too large (organisms vs genes), but it ends with the surprising conclusion that genes have much more of an impact on the world than just giving us bodies to live in. Dawkins makes persuasive arguments for how and why we should view biology as encompassing both the microscopic and the macrocosm.
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
