The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene (ISBN on evolution) is a 1976 book by the British biologist Richard Dawkins.



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[hide] *1 History  ==History[ Edit] == Dawkins was originally inspired by an article by William Donald Hamilton from 1966, but broke and spent two years in the United States by where he joined the anti-Vietnamoorlog movement, until he returned to Britain in 1970. Dawkins initially founded on there computer work, but by constant strikes and power cuts that was interrupted, and when he finally decided to go write (on typewriter) about the ideas on the importance of genes in natural selection that had been involved in those years ever him; in the early 1970s were the first two chapters of what would be The Selfish Gene . When the electricity was restored again, let Dawkins are the project temporarily, until other biologists such as John Maynard Smith and Robert Trivers in 1971-' 74 also began to publish articles about altruism and genes, which were read by Dawkins and incitement to further write him.
 * 2 Content
 * 3 summary
 * 4 see also

In 1975 the manuscript completed, and finally The Selfish Gene in 1976 was published by the Oxford University Press, with an introduction by the author and a foreword by Trivers. A second edition was published in 1989, with two extra chapters and many new footnotes to express new thoughts and discoveries, and a new preface by the author, without the foreword by Trivers. The book was re-released in 2006 with a comprehensive new introduction by the author, with the old two primers and the original foreword by Trivers. Of the English language version of the book are sold over a million copies worldwide.

An English translation, by Henny sangeetha s, appeared in 1977 at A.W. Bruna Publishers under the title The selfish inheritance. The following printing came out at eye Contact as the selfish genes: about evolution, aggression and self-interest (1986); Pandora brought it in 1995 under the title our selfish genes; the reissue of Olympus non-fiction from 2006 had a modified subtitle:the selfish genes: about evolution, self-interest and altruism. ==Content[ Edit] == In the book by Dawkins addresses the impact that the theory of evolution has had on our vision on one of the most important aspects of human social life: the biology of selfishness andaltruism. He eventually concludes that the evolution comes to the well being of the individual (or really even the gene) was adopted, as required, and not for the good of the species. A gene is only successful if it increases in number compared to its alleles in the population. It all depends on only. In reasonable beings we would call that selfish, hence the title of the book. This word is, on genes applied, a technical term: of course no emotions to genes, Dawkins will or other character features. To choose by the gene as the most basic unit on which selection takes place, and to regard the individual as only a carrier (' vehicle ') of genes, can also be understood situations where altruistic behavior of individuals is seen in nature, such as the bee who sacrifices for the colony. To understand this problem from the point of view of the individual is possible, (for example, and was done by W.D. Hamilton, one of the biologists who Dawkins inspired to his vision) but to focus by the gene is everything easier insightful, as it is easier to visualize if the solar system planets that rotate around the Sun than with all kinds of complicated jobs that need to be constructed if one chooses the Earth as the centerpiece. The idea of the gene as a central element is selected by Dawkins was further developed in what he himself regards as his main work, "The Extended Phenotype". Going out of the group or even the kind, that is to say the entire number of individuals of a species if the unit which is selected, on the other hand, immediately leads to contradictions and is demonstrably false. Yet this misconception still found in many textbooks and popular tv shows and even the Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz made itself sometimes guilty of. [source?] ==Summary[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Dawkins don't want psychologizing about or altruism actually motivated by selfishness (and perhaps the other way around), but try using the biology at the level of the gene to explain the development of these traits in organisms. Also shows that the natural selection, such as the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, not the welfare of the species (or group), but that in the end the gene is that through "survival devices", allorganisms, pass its features. Furthermore, cooperation with other genes is no obstacle, but even usually a condition. A gene contains only a small part of the overall design plan for a complex organism; colour of the coat is in another gene, the structure of the bones back into another, to name but a few.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Genes are the "building blocks" and contain the design plan, or parts of the design plan, of an organism and that's the only thing that is passed on from generation to generation. The gene, which builds the best "survival device", survives. So are genes seen in competition with other genes that perform the same functions in a different way (alleles). This mean Dawkins with the selfish genes are. Those genes, which can build the best survival device, will live long enough to be able to give their properties to succeeding generations.

<p lang="en" len="250" style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The word ' gene ' is interpreted broadly in the book, not as a piece of DNA that encodes 1 specific protein, but in much wider sense, as ' that genetic information belonging to a certain characteristic or behavior leads, if necessary via countless intermediate steps '.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Although genes can be regarded as selfish, do not say that the organism (the survival device) that on the basis of many cooperating genes can be built, necessarily selfish. This Dawkins ' reasoning also room for the existence of altruism, like that when different animal species and in humans can be observed. An example of this is the monkey that the colony warns that a predator is near and the attention of the rover itself establishes. It is not difficult to see that the colony has most chance of survival and the genes, which the properties of the survival devices, or the members of the monkey colony, are based, will survive and pass their properties, including the gene that contains the ability to warn. This suggests that for a monkey to exhibit such behavior is relevant only if the genes that lead to prevent that behavior also in the group, in other words if it goes to immediate family. For an unrelated group will the selection pressure (the warning Monkey has some more chance getting caught) against such ' altruistic ' behavior work. Altruism only occurs with groups with a (very) close genetic relationship: also bees in a hive are all at least 50% genetically equal to each other.