Books : The Selfish Gene

Rating: - Simply outstanding
This book is amazing and deserves it's place as a popular science classic. Dawkins argues clearly and with integrity and you get so many mini epiphany moments as you read that you can't help but be profoundly affected by what you read. You will have such an understanding of how our genes may well influence things that you will look at life around you in a completely new light. I'd say that where as Steve Jones' 'Language of the Gene's' (which is also superb and highly recommended) looks more at human genetics, 'The Selfish Gene' looks at genes in general and applies the theory to plants, animals and human life. This is a very clear and readable book, which makes it all the more enjoyable. Don't get bogged down in the moral and political debates around the issues in this book, as Dawkins repeatedly says, this is about genes and how they function, not about if they are morally right to do so. That is where our own behaviour comes in to make us act more altruistically. This really should be required reading and you will not regret giving it a go.

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Rating: - A must for everyone
Probably Dawkins best known book and certainly one of his most influential; the Selfish Gene has in its time polarised the scientific community internally and also against some in the lay community. Its premise is, of course, that selection in organisms occurs at the level of the gene - where the gene is an ambiguous grouping of nucleotides within the organisms' DNA - and that these genes "act" in such a manner as to ensure their survival into the next generation. In so doing Dawkins refutes the then (30 years ago) popular group selection theories. This is what sparked such controversy within the scientific community.

Now largely accepted within the scientific community Dawkins "Selfish Gene" draws heavily on the works of such luminaries as Maynard-Smith, Medawar and others to support his argument. The theories of kin selection and, crucially, Maynard-Smith and Price's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) are fundamental to the book and Dawkins does an excellent job of relaying their simple beauty to the reader through a great many examples, both imaginary and real.

A good proportion of the book deals with the paradoxical concept of the rise of altruism through the action of these selfish genes on their host, and as a side-effect their action upon other hosts. The Selfish Gene sees altruism as a secondary effect resulting from ESSs that favour the replication of the hosts genes within not only themselves, but others. This idea that we are essentially automotons operating at the behest of our microscopic genetic drivers is, of course, where Dawkins clashes with some in the lay community, although Dawkins states clearly that we are the only living species capable of circumventing the hard-coded routines of our genetic material.

The closing chapters introduce memes; a new sort of replicator in the form of information. In the human species such replicators can spread rapidly and can appear to have a life of their own. Dawkins gives a number of examples and he makes a good argument for the idea, but this is the part of the book I struggled with, finding it difficult to buy into the notion of ideas as replicating "life-forms".

In this 30th anniversary edition Dawkins has added a number of useful additional items to the appendix and also a couple of new chapters that introduce the themes taken up in his later book "The Extended Phenotype".

The Selfish Gene is a must-read for anyone interested in this field, indeed for anyone at all. It is an entertaining and thought-provoking book but it is clear that it is a first book when compared to some of Dawkins' far superior later works.

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Rating: - A masterpiece
This has been said before but I will add to the chorus and say it again, this is truly a masterpiece. It added to my worldview, brought a new dimension to it, and helped me look at things from an entirely different perspective. The ideas expressed in this superb work inform much of my every day thinking in a quiet, nearly unobtrusive way. It is a kind of sky light into the mind bringing clarity of thought as soon as your mind looks that way. Yes, this book needs to be read by all our children.

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Rating: - A masterpiece that can induce a paradigm shift
This incredible book probably altered my understanding of nearly every aspect of the human condition. I read it many years ago in my teens, and in retrospect it is probably true to say that it has been one of the most important influences in my intellectual development. Buy it for youself, but more importantly buy it for your children.

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Rating: - an inspirational piece of work
This is a landmark piece of writing without any doubt. This was in fact the book that sparked a whole genre. Until the success of 'The Selfish Gene' popular science writing was spectacularly under-read. After this popular science sections became noticeable in every self-respecting bookshop.

The book itself tackles what in essence could be a very difficult subject (the level at which natural selection acts) but it articulates it so well. Many since have tried to contribute to the debate but none have the prose skills of Dawkins nor the ability to put over a difficult subject with the reader seeing it as outstandingly obvious and common sense. Dawkins also initiates the idea of the meme as a unit of cultural evolution here for the first time. In the long run this may turn out to be Dawkins biggest original contribution to science and it has spawned many books on the subject since.

I have a particular fondness for this book. It was having read this and 'The Blind Watchmaker' which sent me back to full-time education at the age of 29 to read Genetics and subsequently develop a career in science myself. Truly an inspirational piece of work - one of the outstanding books of the Twentieth Century.