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A review by davidst
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
5.0
I read the 30th anniversary edition of the book, from what I can tell the anniversary edition only contains a new short introduction and some review extracts. I kind of wish that Dawkins would have added some new additional footnotes, because the notes from the second edition were great, Dawkins better explained some things and even admitted in a few places where he was wrong. With this being 20 years after the second edition, surely even more has changed.
This book so far is my favorite from Dawkins. His tone is far less assertive and arrogant than his later books, he'll often times admit when something is just his idea and that it very well could be wrong. In this one he's trying to bring more attention to the selfish gene theory, he takes a more cautious approach and tries to convince the reader this is correct and not so much that anyone who disagrees with him needs to be conquered. Also until the end his usual religious rants are completely absent and even then its only a few brief pages.
This book helped to popularize the gene theory and introduced the concept of the meme and regardless of anyone's views of the two ideas, Dawkins influence from this book is enough to at least be a little respected. For me personally, I do think the selfish gene theory is plausable and Dawkins does present a good case, although I don't know near enough to actually have a valid opinion. In the end I really wish Dawkins would have stayed more like this, he seems to ramble more in later books and is more concerned with eradicating the world of creationists and theists than writing books for people who accept evolution and want to learn more about it. I have high hopes that The Extended Phenotype is more of the same (even if the reviews I've read seem to indicate that it will be over my head).
This book so far is my favorite from Dawkins. His tone is far less assertive and arrogant than his later books, he'll often times admit when something is just his idea and that it very well could be wrong. In this one he's trying to bring more attention to the selfish gene theory, he takes a more cautious approach and tries to convince the reader this is correct and not so much that anyone who disagrees with him needs to be conquered. Also until the end his usual religious rants are completely absent and even then its only a few brief pages.
This book helped to popularize the gene theory and introduced the concept of the meme and regardless of anyone's views of the two ideas, Dawkins influence from this book is enough to at least be a little respected. For me personally, I do think the selfish gene theory is plausable and Dawkins does present a good case, although I don't know near enough to actually have a valid opinion. In the end I really wish Dawkins would have stayed more like this, he seems to ramble more in later books and is more concerned with eradicating the world of creationists and theists than writing books for people who accept evolution and want to learn more about it. I have high hopes that The Extended Phenotype is more of the same (even if the reviews I've read seem to indicate that it will be over my head).