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seanmckenna 's review for:
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
A thorough and well-argued way for the layperson to deepen their understanding of evolution. Dawkins works his way through a number of different scenarios to make the case for the gene being the fundamental unit of evolution and for cases of seeming altruism in nature actually representing selfishness on the part of the gene. While nominally a book on biology, it contains a significant amount of math and especially game theory, which put some logic and structure to the complexity of the natural world.
Dawkins does a superb job of making the book approachable for layperson. Most of the complex concepts that he covers come with a relatable metaphor, though he is always careful to remind the reader that they are just that, metaphors, especially when they break down in some respect. He is also remarkably adept at anticipating reader questions or skepticism. There were several times where I found myself thinking "Wait, isn't he begging the question here?", only to have him say within a page or two something like "Some might say that this line of reasoning drifts dangerously close to begging the question... But here's why it doesn't".
A couple of minor complaints:
1) The updated edition of the book keeps the original text intact but adjusts it as necessary in the endnotes for things that have changed in the interim. It's not clear that the modern reader coming to the book for the first time gains anything from this style versus just updating the core text as required. There were a few cases where a long-ish piece of reasoning would be followed by an endnote to the effect of "Subsequent research has found no evidence for this theory...", making you feel like you've kind of wasted your time reading that page.
2) Complaint #1 is exacerbated by the structure of the audiobook (which is how I "read" it). Dawkins and the producers chose to insert the endnotes directly into the narrated text, such that the natural flow of the core text was occasionally interrupted with an aside of decent length. I understand why they did this but since I usually only consume endnotes if I'm particularly interested in some particular section that contains a reference having them effectively forced upon me was somewhat undesirable and made the book significantly longer. Further, while the transitions from the core text to the endnotes was fairly seamless, I often found it a bit difficult to regain the original narrative when returning from them. It seems like there's a gap in audiobook technology here.
Dawkins does a superb job of making the book approachable for layperson. Most of the complex concepts that he covers come with a relatable metaphor, though he is always careful to remind the reader that they are just that, metaphors, especially when they break down in some respect. He is also remarkably adept at anticipating reader questions or skepticism. There were several times where I found myself thinking "Wait, isn't he begging the question here?", only to have him say within a page or two something like "Some might say that this line of reasoning drifts dangerously close to begging the question... But here's why it doesn't".
A couple of minor complaints:
1) The updated edition of the book keeps the original text intact but adjusts it as necessary in the endnotes for things that have changed in the interim. It's not clear that the modern reader coming to the book for the first time gains anything from this style versus just updating the core text as required. There were a few cases where a long-ish piece of reasoning would be followed by an endnote to the effect of "Subsequent research has found no evidence for this theory...", making you feel like you've kind of wasted your time reading that page.
2) Complaint #1 is exacerbated by the structure of the audiobook (which is how I "read" it). Dawkins and the producers chose to insert the endnotes directly into the narrated text, such that the natural flow of the core text was occasionally interrupted with an aside of decent length. I understand why they did this but since I usually only consume endnotes if I'm particularly interested in some particular section that contains a reference having them effectively forced upon me was somewhat undesirable and made the book significantly longer. Further, while the transitions from the core text to the endnotes was fairly seamless, I often found it a bit difficult to regain the original narrative when returning from them. It seems like there's a gap in audiobook technology here.