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The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design (Paperback)

by Richard Dawkins (Author) "We animals are the most complicated things in the known universe..." (more)
Key Phrases: togetherness factor, true cladists, computer biomorphs, The Blind Watchmaker, Biomorph Land, Mont Blanc (more...)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (350 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:

I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.

The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."

Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC.

From Publishers Weekly
Oxford zoologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype trumpets his thesis in his subtitlealmost guarantee enough that his book will stir controversy. Simply put, he has responded head-on to the argument-by-design most notably made by the 18th century theologian William Paley that the universe, like a watch in its complexity, needed, in effect, a watchmaker to design it. Hewing to Darwin's fundamental (his opponents might say fundamentalist) message, Dawkins sums up: "The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the evolution of organized complexity." Avoiding an arrogant tone despite his up-front convictions, he takes pains to explain carefully, from various sides, why even such esteemed scientists as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, with their "punctuated equilibrium" thesis, are actually gradualists like Darwin himself in their evolutionary views. Dawkins is difficult reading as he describes his computer models of evolutionary possibilities. But, as he draws on his zoological background, emphasizing recent genetic techniques, he can be as engrossing as he is cogent and convincing. His concept of "taming chance" by breaking down the "very improbable into less improbable small components" is daring neo-Darwinism. Line drawings.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393315703
ISBN-13: 978-0393315707
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (350 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#5 in Books > Science > Evolution > Organic
#7 in Books > Science > Nature & Ecology > Natural History
#8 in Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Microbiology

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
We animals are the most complicated things in the known universe. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
togetherness factor, true cladists, computer biomorphs, genetic hyperspace, one true tree, male tail length, average tail length, cumulative selection, utilitarian optimum, choice discrepancy, transformed cladists, utilitarian selection, genetic space, single mutational step, nonrandom survival, constructive evolution, genetic formula, cladistic taxonomy, chirp radar, cent vision, complete fossil record, adaptive complexity, adaptive improvement, nine genes

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Blind Watchmaker, Biomorph Land, Mont Blanc, Old World, South America, New Testament, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Charles Darwin, Red Queen, The Selfish Gene, New World, North America, Solar System Number, Second World War, Arthur Koestler, Russell Lande, Richard Goldschmidt, Guinness Book of Records, Blind Watchmaker, Animal Space

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 55 books:

The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition by Charles Darwin on 5 pages
On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on 5 pages
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on 5 pages
The Blind Watchmaker (Penguin science) by Richard Dawkins on 4 pages
Natural Selection (Phoenix 60p paperbacks) by Charles Darwin on page 199, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 55 books this book cites

53 books cite this book:

Human Nature After Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction by Janet Richards in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski on page 38, and Back Matter
Thinking Straight in a Crooked World by Gary DeMar on page 87, and page 117
GOD, REASON AND THEISTIC PROOFS (REASON RELIGION S.) by STEPHEN T. DAVIS on page 119, and Back Matter
The Limitations of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions by Nigel Brush on page 222, and Back Matter

See all 53 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma

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Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennett

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A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins

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Evolution by Mark Ridley

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	69% buy the item featured on this page: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design 3.8 out of 5 stars (350) $11.53
	12% buy The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author 4.3 out of 5 stars (310) $13.57
	11% buy The God Delusion 3.8 out of 5 stars (1,424) $10.37
	5% buy The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution 4.3 out of 5 stars (188) $11.02

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Customer Reviews

350 Reviews

5 star:		(180)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(59)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (350 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

598 of 664 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Desert Island Book., July 13, 2000

By	"musosteve" (UK) - See all my reviews

It's pretty obvious that a fair few people criticising this book have not read it - and have no intention to. Or if they have attempted to read it they simply haven't grasped the most basic concepts. General assumptions that a pro-evolution stance is just an "opinion", or that evolution is "just a theory" (a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of the word in a scientific context), or statements like "given enough time, dirt can turn into people." show that clearly. One person even takes one of the central aims of the book - where Dawkins takes Paley's watchmaker analogy and attempts to show how a complex object like an eye could evolve by selection - and berates Dawkins because because he apparently doesn't grasp the fact that because a watch or computer has a designer, that life must have a designer as well! Awe-inspiring. If I remember he also accuses Dawkins of circular reasoning!

The whole case of the book is that this "it's all chance" thing is precisely the opposite of what Darwin and Wallace said. As Dawkins writes in the prologue "The trouble with evolution is that everyone *thinks* they understand it". If one thing should be taken from this book, it is the realisation that Natural Selection is *anything* but chance.

I used to think I understood evolution. I did Biology as an elective at university but I didn't really begin to understand the subtleties and elegance of the theory until I first read this book 10 years ago. It's genuinely one of the milestone books of my life - and not because I already had an opinion before I read it - unlike the creationists.

To paraphrase Dawkins in this book: If I don't understand Quantum Mechanics or Relativity the last thing I should reasonably expect to be able to do is get away with criticising it as though my opinion had as much weight as that of a person who spent a professional lifetime studying it. Yet, alone amongst the sciences, the theory of evolution is considered fair game for criticism by people of any level of ignorance.

In the middle ages at least people had an excuse for such ignorance. In this age of high technology and scientific breakthoughs, the ingrained, bigoted and ill-thought out repostes to evolution can only be described as willful ignorance. And that's the worst kind.

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719 of 818 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why other people give this book 1 star, September 10, 2001

By	Royal Tenenbaum "antsarecute" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Hi, for the un-informed, I'd recommend a search of the phrase "Richard Dawkins" in google.com, which should answer all questions asking if he is a scientist or not.

The book, is an excellent book. I am not an atheist. The reviews with "one" starts have one goal: To prevent you read this book. Because the review writers know - and fear - that people would understand the point of view of Dawkins.

"It is not science". "Evolution Theory is wrong".. These sentences, are nothing but dogmatic claims. Whole books have been written discussing what is science and what is not, and rather comprehensive books have been written to disprove evolution. But as an open-minded person, I'd suggest you to be informed abouth both approaches to the subject, before making an ill-informed judgement about the issue. Don't listen to people who try to prevent you from reaching knowledge.

The book?
Oh, yes... It is excellent, I'm still amazed by his ability to deconstruct complex topics and discuss them in a simple way.

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108 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most comprehensive answer to Intelligent Design theory, April 1, 2005

By	R. Aamer (Woodbridge, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dawkins has said that if you are going to read only one of his books, make it "The Extended Phenotype". That statement has merit but I would say the following. If you are going to read only one book to see how theory of evolution responds to the creationist arguments, make it "The Blind Watchmaker".

The argument Dawkins is dealing with is the well-known argument of Intelligent Design. The basic tenet of the proponents of intelligent design is the assertion that the complexity existing in the nature can not come about without an intelligent designer. Dawkins is primarily dealing with that assertion in this book, explaining how the process of natural selection gives rise to the complexity.

"The Blind Watchmaker", in my personal opinion, is one of the most successful books written by evolutionists. The success of the book lies in the fact that it deals with a very difficult question in a very readable manner. Dawkins prose is flawless and his skill at presenting arguments is unmatched.

Most of the book, obviously, deals with the creationist argument of design but towards the end of the book, Dawkins moves his focus to the other theories that can be considered rival theories of the theory of evolution like neutral Lamarckism, mutationism etc.

My only complaint about this otherwise marvelous book is its rather limited index. That may not sound like a genuine complaint but once you have read the book, you will realize that Dawkins has dealt with a plethora of things and the index of such a book should enable you to look up those things for quick reference.

Beside that one shortcoming, this book is nothing but perfect.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic!
A thought provoking book that is a major blow to the ID folks. I would enjoy watching Richard discuss his views some some of the comment makers here on Amazon. Read more

Published 7 days ago by Christine Richardson

4.0 out of 5 stars A good description of how natural selection works
If you are interested in the idea of creationism and Darwin's theory of evolution, you will probably find this book of interest. Read more

Published 14 days ago by Nelson R. Kent

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret of Life
In this rightly called classic book, Richard Dawkins unveils nothing less than the
Secret of life, the principle that encompasses all forms of living things, human, animal,... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Luc REYNAERT

2.0 out of 5 stars Caught up in the discussions of the day
While the point Dawkins makes is obviously right and a good point, he frequently looses himself in endless repetition of the same argument, and many of the chapters serve to... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Thomas Boltze

5.0 out of 5 stars Things change over time; given enough time they can change into something different
This is Richard Dawkins' most accessible book on evolution. I always had the feeling that, having composed this most erudite layman's guide to the theory of evolution, he must... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Trevor Coote

1.0 out of 5 stars Pseudoscience
Is Mr. Dawkins sincere? I say this because it seems that Gould's passing created an economic opportunity for Dawkins on capitalizing off evolutionary controversy as Gould did... Read more

Published 5 months ago by GangstaLawya

4.0 out of 5 stars An irreducibly complex book
Richard Dawkins have written several books the titles of which have become household words: "The Selfish Gene", "The God Delusion" and "The Blind Watchmaker". Read more

Published 6 months ago by Ashtar Command

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read, but I want more
I bought "The Blind Watchmaker" because I wanted to read something from the "other side", having read several books with a Christian leaning (that basically just try to trash... Read more

Published 6 months ago by L. Simmons

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on evolution I have ever read!!
Since my last review wasn't taken very well I have pulled it and replaced it with a new one! Let me start with how I came to own this book. Read more

Published 7 months ago by varhou

5.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction
This is a very good introduction to the concepts of evolution for someone who is new to the subject.

Published 7 months ago by Russ Painter

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