Dawkins Richard
Clinton Richard Dawkins is one of today’s most famous thinkers, a brilliant ethologist and one of the most respected evolutionary biologists, a scholar of international renown, a former Oxford University professor for over 13 years, and a tireless popularizer of science, whose books sell millions of copies and have been translated into more than 30 languages. Dawkins has also produced a series of popular science films about the theory of evolution, the scientific method of understanding the world and the need for a critical approach to information. As early as 1976, in his book The Selfish Gene, he coined the term “meme,” which is now widely used. Richard Dawkins has won numerous prizes for his contributions to science, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and holds honorary degrees from a vast number of universities, from Huddersfield and Westminster to the universities of Hull, Antwerp and Valencia.
Jeffrey R. Baylis. “Animal Behavior” We are made by our genes. We animals exist to preserve them, and serve merely as machines to ensure their survival, after which we are simply discarded.
The world of the selfish gene is a world of brutal competition, ruthless exploitation and deception. Well, what about the acts of apparent altruism observed in nature: bees committing suicide when they sting an enemy to protect the hive, or birds risking their lives to warn the flock of an approaching hawk? Does this contradict the fundamental law of the selfishness of the gene? Absolutely not: Dawkins shows that the selfish gene is also a very cunning gene, and he cherishes the hope that the species Homo sapiens — the only one on the entire globe — has the power to rebel against the intentions of the selfish gene. This book is a call to arms.
It is both a guide and a manifesto, and it is as gripping as a suspense novel. “The Selfish Gene” is Richard Dawkins brilliant first book, and it is still his best-known book, an international bestseller, translated into thirteen languages. Notes have been written for this new edition, with very interesting reflections on the text of the first edition, as well as great new chapters. “…highly scholarly, witty, and very well written…. intoxicatingly good.”