In the preface to The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins tells us that 'three imaginary readers looked over my shoulder while I was writing': the layman, the student, and the expert. I recently asked Dawkins how he had fared with each of his target readers. Lay readers, he believes, 'have been moderately enthusiastic, but have quite often misunderstood' the book. Students have received it very favou...

Hamilton’s Rule provides conditions for the evolutionary success of a gene. These conditions ensure that the gene is selfish in the sense described by Richard Dawkins (1976). By this very fact, inclusive fitness does not explain why the genome of a successful species consists of genes that predominantly cooperate in promoting the fitness of their carriers. Hamilton’s rule shows that prosocial a...

Concern for the environment and a move towards ―sustainable development‖ has assisted progress in a wide range of renewable energy technologies in recent years. The science suggests that a transition from fossil fuels to sustainable sources of energy in a time frame commensurate with the demise of the fossil fuels and prevention of runaway climate change is needed. However, while the movement t...

The 20th century saw two key discoveries in genetics. One took place in the laboratory and established the helical structure of DNA. The other was more of an intellectual revolution: the development of selfish gene theory, also known as gene centred evolution. Most doctors will be far more familiar with the first of these discoveries than the second. They would no doubt find it easier to explai...

Bu makalede doğalcı ateizm açısından ahlakın temellendirilme problemi ele alınmaktadır. konu iki temel problemden dolayı için önemlidir: Biri din ve Tanrı inancının insanlar üzerinde ahlak aracılığıyla oluşturduğu şekillendirici etki, diğeri ise toplumda ateizmin bir anlayışına sahip olamayacağı yönündeki ön yargılardır. Kötülüğün kaynağı olarak inancını gören kimi ateist düşünürler ahlaki konu...

I 'm old enough to be one of the first generation of people brought to the 'gene's-eye-view' of biology by reading The Selfish Gene. It changed my outlook on life and has had a profound influence on my subsequent thinking. This transforma-tive experience has been reproduced in many thousands of readers over the past thirty years. Oddly enough, for someone who has studied memes, I don't remember...

Darwin expressed alternative theoretical perspectives on a range of issues fundamental to our understanding of evolution, thereby making it possible for his intellectual descendants to develop his ideas in markedly different and even incompatible directions while still promoting their views as authentically “Darwinian.” The long-running and well-publicized scientific rivalry between Richard Daw...