The Selfish Gene (Popular Science) 2nd Edition

My Copy: Oxford Univ. Press: 30th Anniversary Edition (Hardbound)

There is much more to "The Selfish Gene" than is advertised, even in the most glowing of its reviews. In fact, I (not a biologist, but fascinated by evolution ever since "dinosaurs" and the first high school biology course) have been vaguely aware of this book since its initial wave of rave reviews many years ago, but never bothered to read it because as it was advertised its theme(s) always seemed pretty obvious. But something recently piqued my curiosity again, not sure what that was now, and after reading the prefatory material online I finally decided to take a look.

After reading quickly through the first 3 chapters, it became apparent that there was a great deal more underlying the book than was overtly presented, that it was not just an over-extended, over-simplified, over-popularized, metaphorical presentation .... but rather that its metaphorical treatment is painstakingly faithful to an elaborate, closely-reasoned, even rigorous, scientific underpinning. At which point, I stopped reading and began again from the beginning, first the prefatory material, then from page 1, this time more slowly and more carefully, taking care to appreciate and reflect on all the markers of the underlying basis and their implications.

This is a wonderful book, even beautiful in many respects, from its initial beginning (at the "beginning") with the purely chemical/physics "evolution" of the primordial soup (cast suggestively in the form of biological evolution); to the consequent continuity with the creation of "replicators", elementary "survival" cells, genes, and the beginnings of life forms; to the important distinction between genes and individuals, as genes and their "survival vehicles" (the first cells and "us", for example); to the nicely extended notion of "gene" itself, required by underlying scientific reality; to a clear presentation of the conflict between Darwinian and "group" selection and evolution; to the nature of evolution, operating (in distinct ways) in terms of both genes and individuals, aka both genes and "their" survival vehicles, aka both chemical/physics and biological evolution; to genetic kinship and its very special selective and social implications; ... ; to the delicious End Notes to the 1st eleven chapters, which provide much supporting and fascinating material.

"The Selfish Gene" goes on to clarify not only its expressed subject, the nature and genesis of Selfishness and Altruism, but to make clear the error, scope, and source of various (idealistic, and often political) arguments and ideas centered around group selection fallacies, including the genesis of (ill-conceived) "group-beneficial", cooperative "functions" vs. (individual) evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) and kinship. It also sheds light on many other commonly-posed questions, among them: the fundamental "reason" for the 50:50 sex ratio (despite the number of different breeding strategies observed for male competitors); the driving source of the natural variability upon which (continuing) evolution depends; the variety and shadings of competing "strategies", which can be both conceived and advantageous, clustered around a given regard (partly on account of environmental inconstancy), one incidental, unintended but important, implication of which is that this is itself an evolutionary driving source of the natural variability upon which (continuing) evolution operates; .... and NOT so commonly posed: that "In its long journey down the generations therefore, an [ANY] average gene will spend approximately half its time sitting in male bodies, and the other half sitting in female bodies", and thus genes will generally contribute positively to both sexes, sometimes in very different ways, and that, indeed, many "purely male / purely female" effects pass (unexpressed) through many bodies of the opposite sex; and much, much more.

Beautifully written and packed with wonderful insights, "The Selfish Gene" is not only well-worth the read, but will amply reward the reader in proportion to the thoughtfulness and reflection with which they read it. In fact, there is so much food for thought in the story-lines and examples (e.g., the fig, "lichenization", and organelle endosymbiosis) provided in "The Selfish Gene", that one must often stop and consider, at length and at leisure, the questions which it provokes or which Dawkins rhetorically poses.

I will, however, amend Dawkins' wonderful characterization of "us" (Preface to the First Edition, p. xxi): “We are survival machines --- robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment. Though I have known it for years, I never seem to get fully used to it.” ...... by grafting it to my own previous synopsis, with the result:

"We are Conditioned-Reaction Engines [built on Basic Senses + Unconditioned Reflexes (among them innate Kantian "Categories", instincts, emotions, etc.)] built as Gene-Survival "Machines" [genetically "programmed" to serve the "interests" of our genes] = Pavlo-Kantian Conditioned-Reaction, Darwin-Dawkins Gene-Survival Automatons.

Brilliant and thought-provoking. It will move you to see the world in an entirely new way. Far from being depressing or sad, for me it is hopeful and inspiring. Centuries after we have lived our lives and passed on little bits of us will still live on in all of our descendants and their descendants and in some way great or small the world be changed and shaped because we were here. Besides that, our growing knowledge of genes and science will lead to a much greater understanding of the universe and everything in it. Much of what we are learning about genetics could potentially cure illness and ease human suffering. To me that is a much more inspirational message than a book about angry deities who punish us for real or imagined wrongdoings. I would recommend the book both to readers who are interested in science and to philosophers who are seeking deeper meaning in their lives.

Dawkins writes this book in a very clear and easy to understand way. This is good for someone like me, who prior to reading the book had little to no knowledge on genetics, or anything else on the subject. While his writing can be a little dry, as I expected it would be from a book on this subject, it was never a struggle to get through. He writes it in an accommodating way that allows those less knowledgable on the subject to understand what is going on, without any difficult to understand lingo on the subject that I would perhaps struggle with.
In each chapter he focuses on a subject to help us better understand what he is trying to tell us about our genetic tendencies, but he does this in a way that is a little unusual. Many of the chapter’s focuses are on things that are unrelated to the specific topic of the book. While there are things that are related, like how DNA is formed, to more unrelated ones like what cases certain sexual partners are attracted to one another. This works pretty well and helps to bring his point across. All in all, the book left me feeling better educated on a range of topics addressed in the book, as well as in the selfishness of our genes.

You definitely want to get the 30th Anniversary version, for updates to original concepts.

Although, I am definitely a layman, from a scholars mindset, I was able to follow the concepts being laid out in the book, for the most part, and found it amazing that in essence "we" are merely vehicles evolved out of the primordial gene pool, around our genes to protect them, in order for them to continue "replicating".

I am sure as science continues to learn more and more about genes and DNA we may see further tweaks, but for the most part, Richard Dawkins theories have stood the test of time (or at least the past 30 years, during which more research has been done around these topics).

I have to say that, this book as the author mentions, its a book related to zoology, I'm a student who have been largely interested in genetics and its behaviours. And the way he goes to explain how altruism is not really related to group benefit necessarily its compelling. I love it.

The starting is very interesting. But after a few chapters, the book becomes too complicated and it looks like a maze of things explained in too much detail that only a Scientist might find interesting. Gave up after reading a few chapters. I think this should be edited by someone because the facts are really innovative and contribute to the understanding of "life."

Certainly a classic, which seems to remain relevant in spite of being written some decades ago. My only issue is that philosophically it seems somewhat "Deterministic". We must remember that genes are not conscious beings with a free will. That is only the capacity of human beings, selfish genes notwithstanding.

John