Summary Of The Selfish Gene By Richard Dawkins

Long before Dawkins become known as an atheist, he did his best to shape what we know as the theory of evolution. With his book, the selfish gene, he did just that. A very popular book about evolution, The Selfish Gene was written by Richard Dawkins and first published in 1976. It has since been updated and reprinted many times after. While there are many books on evolution, ones that are good are rare! This book is well written, with great use of analogies, and metaphors making it suited for a wide audience. He uses these to help explain the exciting new discoveries and theories that were being made during the time. While the metaphor Dawkins chose to use to explain his thoughts was a great success it almost seemed to overpower peoples understanding
This is what some people like to use as an argument against this theory, but altruism could be seen as one of the foremost consequences of his theory of the selfish gene. Altruism is when animals lower their own chances of reproducing in order to help a sibling raise its chances. In some cases animals are even born sterile. If by being born sterile they are bound to helping their siblings pass on shared genes, this can be seen as the ultimate evolutionary sacrifice all in the name of their genes. Being that an organism that cannot reproduce is seen as being evolutionary unfit then the only logical and provable explanation for this is the theory of the selfish gene. Now let’s think back, Evolution can be defined as the differential survival and reproduction of genes due to a difference in a phenotype. This makes it especially challenging when trying to explain why there can be an increase in a trait that would lead to an increase in success of another while not himself. The idea of selfish selection does just this. It says that by helping a sibling reproduce an individual will help facilitate the passing of genes that they share, thus helping some of its own genes pass on. This is in part due to closely related individuals sharing an amount of the same genes. While the reasons can be sometimes debated for a trait to be continued on to the next generations, one thing we know is it must have some form of
One of the more extreme examples that was mentioned in his book was Euscocial animals. This is when there is cooperative brood, overlapping generations, and separate breeding and non-breeding casts. A good example would be the haplodiploid hymenopterans. This would include animals like wasps, bees, and ants. In this particular species the fertilized eggs will usually develop into females (Diploid) while the unfertilized eggs will become males (haploid). This will help strengthen the relationship between the females of the colony but does come at a cost. The best way to explain altruisms existence might be to think of it this way, at its underlying level it’s not truly altruistic but rather a selfish act. Think about this, that means when an individual acts in a way that is altruistic, in reality the “selfish” genes are wanting to help their own genes in some way move forward, usually due to the other being a relative. The theory falls on the fact that if they are closely related it is more likely they have the same genes and thus if they help them in passing their genes on they are in turn helping their own genes in a