Richard Dawkins

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Chapters: Viruses of the Mind, Dawkins vs. Gould, The Root of All Evil?, Growing Up in the Universe, Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit, The Enemies of Reason, List of publications by Richard Dawkins, Go God Go, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, The Genius of Charles Darwin, Out Campaign, Go God Go XII, Spectrum of theistic probability, Nice Guys Finish First, Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think, Break the Science Barrier, Marian Stamp Dawkins, Faith School Menace, Gerin oil, Middle World. Excerpt: Connection Timeout Dawkins vs. Gould: Survival of the Fittest is a book by philosopher of biology Kim Sterelny about the differing views of biologists Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould. When first published in 2001 it became an international bestseller. A new edition was published in 2007 to include Gould's The Structure of Evolutionary Theory finished shortly before his death in 2002, and more recent works by Dawkins. The synopsis below is from the 2007 publication. In the introductory chapter the author points out that there have been many conflicts in biology. Still, few have been as public or as polemical as the one between Dawkins and Gould. Dawkins sees evolution as a competition between gene lineages, where organisms are vehicles for those genes. Gould, a paleontologist in the tradition of George Gaylord Simpson, has a different perspective. For example, he sees chance as very important, and views organisms as being more important than genes. Their broader world views also differ, for instance they have very different beliefs about the relationship between religion and science. This begins with a discussion on genes and gene lineages (chapter 2). Dawkins' view on the nature of evolution, as outlined in The Selfish Gene, has genes as the units of selection, both in the first replicators and in more complex organisms, where alliances of genes are formed (and sometimes broken). He then discusses in chapter 3, Dawkins' view of heritability, with genes as difference makers that satisfy replicator principles and have phenotypic power, increasing the likelihood of phenotypic expression, depending on environmental context. In chapter 4, he discusses aspects of genomes and genetic replication, using various examples. He notes that in a story about magpie aggression, "Dawkins' story will be about genes and vehicles", whereas Gould and others will describe it in terms of phenotypic fitness. (p. 39) He discusses ways in which genes "lever their way into the next gene