Genes are like a blueprint for the bodies they create and inhabit. On Earth, those replicators became DNA and evolution led to the complex organisms we have today. New mutations build on top of old ones to create ever-more effective and elaborate vehicles to carry those replicators. Some of those mutations, by pure chance, are helpful, and the molecules carrying them replicate more effectively than others. Those that can’t effectively replicate themselves will be squeezed out of the population, while those that can undergo various mutations during the copying process. Sooner or later, the environment runs out of freely available resources, and then the molecules will have to compete.

Copying itself is that molecule’s only purpose. Once formed, however, that replicator quickly copies itself and spreads throughout its environment. That molecule first arises by chance, as atoms randomly bump into each other in some primordial soup. Therefore, it makes more sense to look at life from the perspective of a selfish gene doing anything it can to reproduce itself because, outside of random mutations, genes pass from one generation to the next unchanged.Īny form of life anywhere in the universe must begin with some type of replicating molecule. While many biologists would say that the purpose of life is to survive and reproduce at the organismal level, Dawkins argues that there are things that the organismal approach can’t explain, such as the prevalence of sexual reproduction when it leads to offspring that are substantially different from the parents. The Selfish Gene shows that all forms of life on Earth begin with genes, and that the purpose of life is to make sure those genes survive. Princeton: Princeton University Press.1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Selfish Gene Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. Parental investment and sexual selection. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. The psychological foundations of culture. Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279, 2930–2935. Risk and the evolution of human exchange. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1–52. The genetical evolution of social behavior (I & II). New York: Oxford University Press.ĭawkins, R.

Dawkins richard the selfish gene