Book Review

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

     Strong scientific theories are like strong genes in that they stay around for a long time. The ideas put forth by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene are still circulating in the discourses of genetics and evolutionary biology after approximately forty years. That is a long time considering how scientists rigorously dismantle weak theories through the process of testing and evaluation. What makes Dawkins’ book a survivor is a combination of sound reasoning and clear descriptive writing that makes his ideas accessible to people outsider the disciplines he is involved in.

     The book starts off with a crash course in genetics. Genes are the basic and most fundamental buildings blocks of all living organisms. Upon conception, the genes pair off in sequences that form strips called chromosomes which combine to form complete living creatures. While genes across all organisms are mostly the same, it is their sequence on the chromosome that distinguishes one living form from all the others. Dawkins calls each individual creature a survival machine because the living body is a vehicle for the gene to use.

     That is what genes are. This about is about what genes do, though. The Selfish Gene is all about how genes are exactly what the title says: they behave selfishly because by doing so they increase their chances of reproduction. When chromosomes combine to form an organism they do so according to instructions given to them by genes; these instructions give form to the body and tell it how to behave. Therefore genes influence how a being behaves but it does not control what it actually does. In various ways, an organism can resist the temptation to follow the genetic instructions it has inherited. A gene’s ultimate goal and purpose is to replicate or reproduce exact copies of itself to be passed along into other organisms. The selfish genes are the ones most equipped to replicate and the ones most successful at building and instructing organic bodies that maximize reproductive behavior. Genes that do not replicate die out and therefore evolutionary selection takes place at the genetic level, not at the species level as some scientists have previously argued.

Dawkins uses games theory as a tool of analysis for animal and human behavior. Games theory is a mathematical technique based on the idea that social behaviors are calculated by each individual to maximize benefits to themselves; in Dawkins’ case this means maximizing the potential for reproduction and genetic replication. He gives fascinating examples throughout the book to illustrate his point. The analyses are primarily of birds and mammals in the beginning with some sections on insects, fish, and plants. Most of what he says about humans comes in the latter part of the book. We learn some interesting things along the way like how there is a difference between bearing and raising offspring, why some birds are monogamous and others are not, how ants enslave other ants to run their farms, how cheating and deception are used as survival strategies, why people feel more emotionally tied to members of their kinship groups then they do to people outside of it, and how altruism is actually a masked strategy of selfishness.

     The examples given fit nicely into the theory of the selfish gene and serve to credibly strengthen it. The theory and its examples fit together logically like pieces of a puzzle and at times they strive towards a symmetry that achieves a type of poetic beauty. Most importantly, The Selfish Gene succeeds as a book because it explains these ideas in clear, simple language that is accessible to non-scientists without dumbing the ideas down to a point of condescending simplicity. It is a great work of public relations for science because it opens doors to its readers and welcomes them into the world of genetics in a way that it interesting and entertaining.

     The latter chapters focus more on human behavior. The idea of cultural memes is introduced. These are ideas that replicate themselves by passing from person to person and have a strong influence on behavior. This chapter is interesting but it is short and is meant to be a springboard towards further research rather than a complete description.

     Another chapter uses games theory to analyze the Prisoner’s Dilemma game; the conclusion drawn is that altruism is the strongest survival strategy since it maximizes benefits to all members of a community in the long run whereas mutual antagonism ultimately causes communities to collapse and disintegrate. That chapter is not only interesting but also optimistic since it justifies the idea that human culture can override some of then genetic tendencies that drive people to do terrible things for the sake of ensure the replication of their genes. It could be said that rape, for example, is the result of a genetic disposition to reproduce but educational initiatives taken by society can be used to train people to control their urge to rape or force women into unwanted pregnancies. The downside is that this is the most abstruse chapter of the book and it is a major pain in the ass to read.

     Overall, The Selfish Gene is a great introduction of Dawkins’ theory and an excellent illustration of how the theory works. It is an introduction, though, and far from a complete exegesis his ideas. Dawkins himself does a good job of pointing out some of the shortcomings of his theory and also explains some parts that simply beg for further research. Unfortunately, this book has also been latched on to by some naive libertarian ideologues who see it as a justification for an infantile culture of narcissism and greed while their equally naive opponents have condemned this book because of that. A careful and honest reading of The Selfish Gene should put those misinterpretations to rest. 

Dawkins Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1999.