The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness [Hardcover]

Joan Roughgarden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520258266 | ISBN-13: 978-0520258266 | Publication Date: April 20, 2009 | Edition: 1

Are selfishness and individuality--rather than kindness and cooperation--basic to biological nature? Does a "selfish gene" create universal sexual conflict? In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully rejects these and other ideas that have come to dominate the study of animal evolution. Building on her brilliant and innovative book Evolution's Rainbow, in which she challenged accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation, Roughgarden upends the notion of the selfish gene and the theory of sexual selection and develops a compelling and controversial alternative theory called social selection. This scientifically rigorous, model-based challenge to an important tenet of neo-Darwinian theory emphasizes cooperation, elucidates the factors that contribute to evolutionary success in a gene pool or animal social system, and vigorously demonstrates that to identify Darwinism with selfishness and individuality misrepresents the facts of life as we now know them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The arguments and counterarguments will most certainly

generate a good deal of heat, but also, let's hope,. . . . even more light."--The American Scholar

"Roughgarden's new theory is likely to end up an important extension to existing thought.--New Scientist

"Succeeds in re-opening issues long thought closed.. . . .(Challenging) what we thought we already know."--Nature

"Argues that. . . . sexual selection as a form of self-seeking improvement on the part of each beast is a myth."--New Yorker

From the Inside Flap

"Roughgarden's unique and forceful vision issues a timely, cogent challenge to the predominant world view that selfishness and conflict are the norm in adaptive evolution."--Michael J. Wade, coauthor of Mating Systems and Strategies

"No other book offers such a sustained argument against sexual selection theory and provides such a compelling alternative--substantively important and exciting."--Jonathan Kaplan, coauthor of Making Sense of Evolution

"This may be the most important book, philosophically speaking, on evolutionary theory in a decade. If Roughgarden is right, males and females evolved as allies, not enemies, and evolutionary theory needs a rethink because competition evolves in a cooperative world, not the other way around."--James Griesemer, President of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520258266
• ISBN-13: 978-0520258266
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,087,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reproductive Social Behavior, May 13, 2009

By 

Josh (ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness (Hardcover)

Joan Roughgarden's 2009 book, The Genial Gene, focuses on the present limitations of sexual selection theory. At present, we might all think that such a stance is rubbish. We've seen nature documentaries and been taught in school why such species as the peacock have such great, bright, colorful, and costly displays. In natural selection, the most fit survive, yet having to haul massive tail feathers can leave a bird much more prone to predation. Even more, only the males have the bright displays. Sexual selection teaches us that these bright feathers attract females so that, while costly in one sense, guarantee more mates and those more offspring, who will then themselves have bright massive tail feathers.
Ironically, a 2008 study has found that the tail feathers offer no mating advantage. In this case, the theory is wrong.
Roughgarden cites this study and many more, debunking case after case of what one previously assumed would fall easily under the sexual selection banner. Notable authors in the field will also concede that the definition of sexual selection isn't even clear, and when cases such as the peacock fail, the theory is expanded.
Roughgarden, after showing the difficulty with present theory, offers another approach: social selection. Here, cooperation replaces competition. Birds work as a team to produce chicks. Sperm and egg develop in such a manner as to provide the greatest chance of fertilization. As yet, the theory is untested. However, it has been developed to match existing data and knowledge and easily provides better explanation for natural phenomena than does the current definition of sexual selection.
While I might be skeptical of many of Roughgarden's hypotheses, they are now available, as were Copernicus', Galileo's, and any other groundbreaking scientist's theories and hypotheses. Now, science can go about testing, debunking, or proving social selection.
Whether Roughgarden's theory offers a valid replacement or not, this book is a great read. Not only do you learn about social selection, but you also catch up on sexual selection theory. You learn much more than you'd see in a basic biology class, and you are left with facts and ideas that you can contemplate yourself. The writing is easy to follow, often entertaining, and very informative.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DarWin-Win, October 20, 2009

By 

David C. Belden "Dave Belden" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness (Hardcover)

I wrote a longish review of the book in Tikkun, the magazine I work on (here: [...]), but thought I would post some conclusions from that review here to encourage nonscientists to buy the book. I was very impressed by Dawkins's 'The Selfish Gene' when it came out and have been a critical enthusiast for sociobiology ever since: believing in its potential, but troubled by its biases. I never imagined that sexual selection itself might be so riven by a bias towards male/female conflict, rather than cooperation, as to skew the scientific research and interpretation to a point of becoming something closer to pure ideology than science. Roughgarden's book argues this brilliantly, and for the most part very clearly for interested lay people. It was a revelation to me as a non-biologist.

Darwin saw two major forces in evolution: natural selection and sexual selection. Roughgarden proposes replacing the latter with a theory she calls social selection. Here are the conclusions from my review:

At the end of the book she presents a table of twenty-six assumptions or hypotheses in sexual selection theory that are contradicted by equivalents in social selection theory. All of these can potentially be resolved, as to their truth or falsity, by field and experimental research. Roughgarden already presents enough data to show that social selection must be taken very seriously, and will likely prevail. This would be a huge paradigm shift. She finds widespread and deep resistance even to testing the theories.

Let me be clear. Roughgarden's is not an argument against sociobiology, and whatever explanations and descriptions of a universal human nature it can establish. Her beef is only with a vision of sexual and social relations based in selfish, as opposed to genial, genes.

Other books have objected to selfish gene theory because it appears to be an ideology, and one fully in line with modern capitalism and competitive individualism. But this is the first book I have read that attacks the whole ideology of selfish Darwinism on a broad scale from the perspective of purely biological research. As a Christian and transgender woman, Roughgarden has plenty of ideological reasons to oppose selfish gene theory and a worldview based on binary male/female conflict and traditional sex roles. But the beauty of this book is that she has pursued in a strictly scientific manner whatever skepticism her own life experience has taught her to hold about mainstream scientific ideologies. Here she is concerned solely with what is scientifically testable and true.

The very idea that there is truth in these postmodern times, when even physicists seem to have got beyond the hope of it, is a breath of intellectual oxygen. Roughgarden writes:

"As often stated in this book the issue before us is not whether a biological nature predicated on selfishness, deception, and genetic hierarchy is appealing or repugnant compared with a biological nature predicated on teamwork, honesty, and generic equality. The issue is which of these views of biological nature is true."

And when she adds, "I believe I have shown that the overwhelming weight of data and theory reveal that the selfish-gene picture does not truly and accurately describe biological nature," I applaud both her conclusion and her courage in saying it so forcefully, for she is stirring up a storm that will rage for at least a generation.

My reaction on reading the book was, "this is a civilization-changer." Roughgarden is a powerful thinker and writer. I have rarely been as energized and delighted by a book as I was by this one. You could say it's no big deal: our capacity to choose to love each other is experientially real, however biologists choose to explain it. But to the contrary, I think we are in desperate need of significant intellectual support for a post-capitalist, post-patriarchal, post-individualistic social order that prioritizes community, caring, and interdependence. What a gas, what an unexpected bonanza, what a grace, if it turned out that's what biology supports at a genetic level anyway.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooperation Rules!, March 28, 2009

By 

J. Griesemer (University of California, Davis CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness (Hardcover)

This may be the most important book, philosophically speaking, on evolutionary theory in a decade. Not everyone will be persuaded by Roughgarden's critique of sexual selection or her insistence that one must choose between it and her alternative, social selection. Nevertheless, her social selection theory offers an intriguing alternative to the assumption that sex dimorphisms evolve because superior males win choosy, coy females. Instead, organisms choose mates to be good team players in maximizing offspring reared. If Roughgarden is right, males and females evolved as allies, not enemies, and evolutionary theory needs a rethink because competition evolves in a cooperative world, not the other way around.

The book is engagingly written, well organized and provides entry points to the technical literature, making it accessible to scientific specialists and a general audience alike. The book includes sections on cooperation and teamwork, genetic and social systems for sex, and concludes with point by point comparisions of the virtues and limitations of sexual selection and social selection theories.

Social selection theory is a "two tier" theory which holds genes "at arms length" from the behaviors that structure social interactions and the dynamics of evolutionary games between organisms that form teams to pursue reproductive goals. It is particularly valuable for introducing to a wide audience Nash bargaining solutions from game theory. These form part of the cooperative basis for Roughgarden's alternative to Nash competitive equilibrium theory that has supported many of the arguments favoring sexual selection theory.