The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary editionThe million copy international bestseller, critically acclaimed and translated into over 25 languages. As influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research. Forty years later, its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published. This 40th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today, as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think. |
Contents
1 WHY ARE PEOPLE? | 1 |
2 THE REPLICATORS | 15 |
3 IMMORTAL COILS | 26 |
4 THE GENE MACHINE | 59 |
5 AGGRESSION | 86 |
6 GENESMANSHIP | 114 |
7 FAMILY PLANNING | 141 |
8 BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS | 159 |
11 MEMES | 245 |
12 NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST | 261 |
13 THE LONG REACH OF THE GENE | 302 |
EPILOGUE TO 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION | 345 |
ENDNOTES | 359 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 435 |
| 447 | |
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS | 457 |
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Common terms and phrases
alleles altruism ancestors animals ants aphids baby behave behaviour benefit biologists birds body brain called cells chance chapter cheats child chromosome cooperation copies copulate cousins cuckoo Darwin Darwinian Dawkins defect eggs evolution evolutionarily stable evolutionarily stable strategy evolutionary evolve example expect Extended Phenotype fact favour female fight gene pool genetic unit group selection grudgers Hamilton happen hawk human idea individual investment kin selection kind large number less living look males mate Maynard Smith means meme molecules mother mutation mutual naked mole rats nasty natural selection nest nice offspring organism paradoxical parasites parents particular play population predators primeval soup queen reason relatedness replicators reproduction retaliator rival selfish DNA selfish gene theory sense sexual share snail social insects species sperms strategy survival machines tend things tion Tit for Tat Trivers W. D. Hamilton whole workers young