Definition
A seminal text in evolutionary biology that articulates the gene-centered view of evolution by natural selection, explains how self-interested genes can give rise to altruism, and introduces the meme.
Introduction
The Selfish Gene (1976) was English ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’s first book. Drawing on the theory developed by G. C. Williams (1966), Dawkins asserts that the gene is the primary unit of natural selection and criticizes group selection accounts. Another goal of the book was to “examine the biology of selfishness and altruism” (p. 1) by combining theories of inclusive fitness, such as kin selection, with the gene-centered view of natural selection. Dawkins also coined the meme as a unit of human cultural evolution. The Selfish Gene, now in its fourth edition, has remained an influential articulation of evolutionary theory and has been...
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References
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dawkins, R. (1982). The extended phenotype. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behavior (I & II). Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1–52.
Kaplan, H. S., Schniter, E., Smith, V. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2012). Risk and the evolution of human exchange. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279, 2930–2935.
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 19–136). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Mermelstein, S. (2016). Selfish Gene, The. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1876-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1876-1
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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