The Selfish Gene

by Richard Dawkins

natural selection

Darwinism

reciprocation,

Darwinian theory’s

generosity

apparent dispute between the gene and the organism as rival units of natural selection

it has to be admitted that there are some genes that do no such thing and work against the interests of the rest of the genome.

social behaviour

The Selfish Lion

parental investment

Unlike the second edition of 1989, this anniversary edition adds no new material except this Introduction, and some extracts from reviews chosen by my three-times Editor and champion, Latha Menon.

self-deception.

Richard Dawkins

The Extended Phenotype

My point was that there are two ways of looking at natural selection, the gene’s angle and that of the individual. If properly understood they are equivalent; two views of the same truth. You can flip from one to the other and it will still be the same neo-Darwinism.

entire scientific reputations may have been built on the work of students and colleagues!

constructive criticism

Chimp and human, lizard and fungus, we have all evolved over some three billion years by a process known as natural selection.

This is natural selection: the non-random differential reproduction of genes.

Natural selection has built us, and it is natural selection we must understand if we are to comprehend our own identities.

deceit is fundamental in animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray—by the subtle signs of self-knowledge—the deception being practiced.

for a mystery story is exactly what biology is.

stimulation

Living organisms had existed on earth, without ever knowing why, for over three thousand million years before the truth finally dawned on one of them.

important thing in evolution is the good of the species (or the group) rather than the good of the individual (or the gene).

The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes.

Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature.

Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

Some would say that culture is so important that genes, whether selfish or not, are virtually irrelevant to the understanding of human nature.

this book is not is a descriptive account of the detailed behaviour of man or of any other particular animal species.

Humans and baboons have evolved by natural selection.

If we find that our expectation is wrong, if we observe that human behaviour is truly altruistic, then we shall be faced with something puzzling, something that needs explaining.

‘Welfare’ is defined as ‘chances of survival’, even if the effect on actual life and death prospects is so small as to seem negligible.

is that apparently trivial tiny influences on survival probability can have a major impact on evolution.

It is important to realize that the above definitions of altruism and selfishness are behavioural, not subjective.

Maybe they are and maybe they aren’t, and maybe we can never know, but in any case that is not what this book is about.

is concerned only with whether the effect of an act is to lower or raise the survival prospects of the presumed altruist and the survival prospects of the presumed beneficiary.

An apparently altruistic act is one that looks, superficially, as if it must tend to make the altruist more likely (however slightly) to die, and the recipient more likely to survive.

Laying down one’s life for one’s friends is obviously altruistic,

give a characteristic ‘alarm call’, upon which the whole flock takes appropriate evasive action.

This is only a slight additional risk, but it nevertheless seems, at least at first sight, to qualify as an altruistic act by our definition.

misconception

devoted

Evolution works by natural selection,

natural selection means the differential survival of the ‘fittest’.

the struggle for existence, the individual seems best regarded as a pawn in the game, to be sacrificed when the greater interest of the species as a whole requires it.

alternative is normally called ‘individual selection’,

Even in the group of altruists, there will almost certainly be a dissenting minority who refuse to make any sacrifice.

If there is just one selfish rebel, prepared to exploit the altruism of the rest, then he, by definition, is more likely than they are to survive and have children.

He might even admit that if only the individuals in a group had the gift of foresight they could see that in the long run their own best interests lay in restraining their selfish greed, to prevent the destruction of the whole group.