|
|
|
RICHARD
DAWKINS
'The Extended Phenotype'. rating:   
readability:
|
|
This book is somewhat more demanding than 'The Selfish Gene' (see below). Because it is presented in more rigorous scientific terms, it spends rather more time than I would have liked on explaining what is inaccurate about previous ways of looking at the gene-body-environment relationship. This, unfortunately, is necessary. On the positive side, however, it goes farther than 'Selfish Gene' in that it encourages us to think of the effects of genes as not being confined to the body in which they reside; the reader is shown that genes use stones, wood, water, and other animals in essentially the same way as they use the body which holds them - for example, the beaver genes which induce the animal to build a dam and a lodge, or the genes which make a cuckoo chick manipulate the behaviour of the 'host' parents. I find the 'conceptual dissolution' of the barrier between organism and environment to be a most intriguing and enlightening perspective. Click here to buy it (£7.19 - about $13). To read more reviews, click here. |
|
RICHARD
DAWKINS
'The Selfish Gene'. rating:
readability:
|
|
This is a seminal book. Not only is Dawkins the namer and one of the main protagonists of the theory of the selfish gene; the book is a great read, written for a wide audience in Dawkins' outstandingly penetrating and lucid prose. It is a relief to come across as clear a mind as that possessed by Dawkins. He is often accused of being 'reductionist'; indeed, that's exactly what he is. However, to unveil the strange first principles of nature, and to present this heartless marvel in clear terms, is surely more worthwhile than comforting ourselves with shallow mystical spoutings. In essence, the selfish gene theory states that in evolution, the primary 'unit of selection' is not the group or the individual creature, but the gene. As Gould (who is actually anti-Selfish Gene theory) remarks, "What is the 'individual reproductive success' of which Darwin speaks? It cannot be the passage of one's body into the next generation - for, truly, you can't take it with you in this sense above all!" ['You Can't Take it With You', 1992]. Ultimately, what all living things are is 'survival vehicles' (Dawkin's term) for genes. Organisms do not survive past death; particular gene sequences do. However, Dawkins is at pains to point out that this does not mean that all creatures are selfish: copies of their genes exist in their relatives, so they have something to gain by helping them. Genes have also constructed the partly-rational human brain, which sometimes reasons its way to acting in ways which counteract selfish genetic aims - for example, by doing aid work or being voluntarily celibate. Dawkins also uses the book to introduce another of the more interesting ideas to have gained currency in recent times - that of the 'meme'. The meme is, more or less, the cultural equivalent of the gene. The main (terrestrial) 'meme vehicle' is the human mind. As host to thoughts, the mind exercises its own form of natural selection on them; the interesting point here is that minds are structured in such a way as to be more vulnerable to certain thoughts than to others. Ideas do not enter our minds because they are good for us; they do so because they are good at being spread, at entering minds. If the 'viral qualities' of memes are strong, therefore, they can spread themselves even at a high cost to their hosts and those affected by them - viz Nazism. To read more about memes, click here. This book is definitely a good 'un. Click
here to buy it ($10.36), or to read more reviews.
|
To explore the rest of the site, click here for a site map.
