Richard Dawkins / Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene

Translation from English by N.O. Fomina.
Biology Literature Editorial Board Federal target program of book publishing in Russia.
ISBN 5-03-002531-6 © Oxford University Press 1976 ISBN 0-19-286092-5 The Edition © Richard Dawkins 1989 This book was originally published in the English language by Oxford University Press, Oxford , England © translation into Russian, Fomina N. O., 1993

The English author's book presents one of the modern approaches to the problem of evolution. The biological foundations of behavior and its role in natural selection are considered. The book has a brilliant, engaging writing style. The first edition was an international bestseller, translated into 13 languages ​​and widely used in biology teaching around the world. This translation is from the second, revised edition.

Geoffrey R. Baileys. "Animal Behavior":

We are created by our genes. We animals exist to keep them, and serve as machines to ensure their survival, after which we are simply thrown away. The world of the selfish gene is a world of fierce competition, ruthless exploitation and deceit. But what about the acts of sheer altruism seen in nature: bees committing suicide when they sting an enemy to protect a hive, or birds risking their lives to warn a flock of a hawk's approach? Does this contradict the fundamental law of gene selfishness? No way: Dawkins shows that the selfish gene is also a very cunning gene. And he cherishes the hope that the Homo sapiens species - the only one on the entire globe - is able to rebel against the intentions of the selfish gene. This book is a call to take up arms. It's a guide and a manifesto at the same time, and it grabs you like an action-packed novel.

The Selfish Gene is Richard Dawkins' brilliant first book and still his most famous book, an international bestseller translated into thirteen languages. Notes have been written for this new edition, which contain very interesting reflections on the text of the first edition, as well as large new chapters.

Richard Dawkins

The main idea of ​​the book is to demonstrate the ability of genes, in the face of their phenotypic manifestations, to go beyond the body - the carrier. For example, the genes of the influenza virus manipulate the behavior of a person - a completely different organism, causing him to sneeze and thereby spread the virus; the beaver's genes that encourage it to build dams have an effect on the surrounding landscapes up to several square kilometers; in principle, interplanetary spaceships that have already left the solar system can also be considered a distant influence of genes.

Richard Dawkins

Dawkins's book shows in a popular and lucid way how from primordial Simplicity, without the participation of any higher intelligent being, highly organized Complexity can arise. The watchmaker mentioned in the title of the book is taken from the famous treatise of the 18th century theologian William Paley, who argued that watches cannot appear spontaneously and spontaneously, but only as the fruit of the mind and efforts of a conscious being (watchmaker); thus, even more complex (than clocks) living beings can be created only by the will and mind of the Creator. Dawkins in his book shows that natural selection, operating on spontaneous variations of simple initial forms, over hundreds and thousands of generations can produce no less impressive complexity. The book also shows the specific mechanisms behind this incremental selection and provides answers to frequently asked questions about evolution.

Richard Dawkins

The famous English evolutionist and popularizer of science Richard Dawkins, about whom Chemistry and Life wrote so much, is not only the author of the theory of memes and a passionate supporter of the Darwinian theory of evolution, but also an equally passionate atheist and materialist. Charles Darwin, in one of his letters, remarked, half in jest, that only "the book of the Devil's Servant" could tell about the gross, blind and cruel creative activity of nature. A century and a half later, the challenge was accepted. A collection of his articles, first published in 2003, Dawkins called "Servant of the Devil" ("A Devil" s Chaplain. Selected Essays by Richard Dawkins ", Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2003). However, only a part of the articles included is devoted to evolutionary mechanisms Another and, perhaps, the most important theme for the author is the irreconcilable, uncompromising struggle for clarity of thought.

Richard Brody

A daring and witty book by Richard Brody turns everything on which psychology, political science and management have stood until now. Human thinking and behavior, he argues, are dictated by memes. A meme is a psychovirus, a mental image. It originates in our consciousness and begins an independent life. It multiplies and changes our behavior. Memes are as funny as Pokemon and as harmless as miniskirts, as harmful as McDonald's food or even as sinister as fascism. Memes can make you happy and rich, or they can make you poor and sick.

Maxim Krongauz

Today it is impossible to imagine communication without memes, especially on the Internet. They constantly pop up like a jack-in-the-box, seize the communicative space, impudently and aggressively, and then somehow disappear imperceptibly. Few people understand what it is and what rules they live by, although there are people who try to create memes, and sometimes they even succeed.

An interesting book on evolutionary biology. In 1976, when the first edition went to press, it probably had the effect of an exploding bomb, but now it is an interesting artifact that retains a noticeable value. Although against the background of Markov's books it looks pretty old-fashioned and somewhat chaotic, but at the time of writing it, the author was young and he really wanted to misbehave.

Dawkins from the first pages wins over by the fact that he does not hide his acrimony, irony and scrupulousness. Most of his conclusions about marriage strategies and, more broadly, strategies of social behavior can be extended to people, but he almost never does this deliberately, leaving the reader to do it himself.

The main idea of ​​the book is that a person (as well as other living beings) is a mortal machine, the whole meaning of whose existence is to transfer its genes to descendants. All life activity in one way or another, directly or indirectly, is subordinated to this task, while the genes are relatively indifferent to what exactly will happen to the “mortal machine” itself, which is the carrier of these genes.

The author develops this idea for quite a long time, and then, on its basis, rethinks the behavior of animals, destroying the constructions of other scientists. The main methodological hole he fails to notice is that he offers alternative non-contradictory explanations for apparent facts. But this consistency by itself does not prove anything. It is simply a more complex (compared to the derided theory of group selection) theory in which the facts fit. But in accordance with Occam's razor, a more complex theory should be sacrificed for a simpler one that explains the same facts.

Direct evidence lies in a slightly different plane - under the glass of a microscope (although at the time of the publication of the first edition of the book, most of the evidence was not available, they are just for Markov), but the author deliberately refuses the idea of ​​flooding us with direct evidence that we are "managed", rather, they set behavior vectors, genes. He wants to prove it with logic. This hurts the book somewhat.

But these are my quibbles. The chapters on social insects, on non-zero-sum games, the already classic story about the "prisoner's paradox" - all this is presented cheerfully and efficiently, and most importantly - interestingly.

It is curious that in the notes and additions to the book the author disavows almost all his ardent remarks and political allusions - in just 13 years he has become calmer and more mature.

Many of the author's constructions reminded me of economic theories, it is clear that both sciences have experienced the action of certain forces of convergence. Ideas about the marginal utility of a unit of food when distributed among creatures, theories of dynamic equilibrium and the distribution of types of individuals (fraudsters, simpletons and vindictive ones) in a population - all this is very, very similar to the corresponding analogs from the field of national economics.

The creative success of the author - chapters on marital behavior. All these strategies of females and males, "homeliness", various contributions to offspring, attempts at fraud, abandoned children, attempts to get a partner to build a nest before having offspring - everything is directly and unambiguously transmitted to the human environment, despite the tricks of the author, who claims that he discusses birds or something else, and people, they say, surpassed the Darwinian world thanks to the presence of reason. We are not far from the level of social life of birds of paradise and weavers.

The Origin of Altruism and Virtue [From Instincts to Cooperation] Ridley Matt

The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene

In the mid-1960s, a real revolution took place in biology, the main instigators of which were George Williams and William Hamilton. It is referred to by the famous epithet proposed by Richard Dawkins - "the selfish gene." It is based on the idea that in their actions individuals, as a rule, are not guided by the good of the group, or the family, or even their own. Every time they do what is beneficial to their genes, for they are all descended from those who did the same. None of your ancestors died a virgin.

Both Williams and Hamilton are both naturalists and loners. The first, an American, began his scientific career as a marine biologist; the second, an Englishman, was at first regarded as a specialist in social insects. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Williams, and later Hamilton, argued for a new, stunning approach to understanding evolution in general and social behavior in particular. Williams started with the assumption that aging and death are very counterproductive things for the body, but for genes, programming aging after reproduction is completely logical. Consequently, animals (and plants) are designed in such a way as to perform actions that are beneficial not to themselves and not to their species, but to their genes.

Usually genetic and individual needs coincide. Although not always: for example, salmon dies during spawning, and a stinging bee is equated with suicide. Subordinating to the interests of genes, a single creature often does what benefits its offspring. But even here there are exceptions: for example, when there is a shortage of food, birds abandon their chicks, and chimpanzee mothers ruthlessly wean their babies from the breast. Sometimes genes require actions for the benefit of other relatives (ants and wolves help their sisters raise offspring), and sometimes for a larger group (in an effort to protect the cubs from the wolf pack, musk oxen stand up as a dense wall). Sometimes it is necessary to force other beings to do things that adversely affect themselves (when we catch a cold, we cough; salmonella causes diarrhea). But always and everywhere, without exception, living things do only what increases the chances of their genes (or copies of genes) to survive and replicate. Williams formulated this thought with all his characteristic frankness: "As a rule, if a modern biologist sees how one animal does something in the interests of another animal, he believes that the first is either manipulated by the second, or is guided by hidden selfishness" 12.

The above idea arose from two sources at once. First, it followed from the theory itself. Given that genes are the replicating currency of natural selection, it is safe to say that those that induce behaviors that increase their likelihood of survival must inevitably thrive at the expense of those that do not. This is a simple consequence of the very fact of replication. And secondly, this was evidenced by observations and experiments. All kinds of behaviors that seemed strange when viewed through the prism of a single individual or species suddenly became understandable when analyzed at the level of genes. In particular, Hamilton proved that social insects leave more copies of their genes in the next generation, not reproducing, but helping their sisters to breed. Hence, from the genetic point of view, the striking altruism of the worker ant turns out to be pure, unambiguous selfishness. Selfless cooperation within an ant colony is just an illusion. Each individual strives for genetic eternity not through its own offspring, but through its brothers and sisters - the royal offspring of the uterus. Moreover, she does this with the same genetic egoism with which any person climbing the career ladder pushes rivals. Ants and termites themselves might have renounced the "Hobbesian War," as Kropotkin argued, but their genes hardly 13 .

This revolution in biology had an enormous psychological impact on those directly affected. Like Darwin and Copernicus, Williams and Hamilton dealt a humiliating blow to people's conceit. Man turned out to be not only the most ordinary animal, but, in addition, a disposable toy, an instrument of a community of selfish, selfish genes. Hamilton remembers well the moment when he suddenly realized that the body and the genome are more like a society than a well-coordinated mechanism. Here is what he writes about this: “And then the realization came that the genome is not a monolithic database and a steering group devoted to one project - to stay alive, to have children, which I imagined it to be before. It began to seem to me like a boardroom, a battlefield where individualists and factions fight for power... I am an ambassador sent abroad by some fragile coalition, the bearer of conflicting orders from the masters of a splintered empire” 14 .

Richard Dawkins, then a young scientist, was just as dumbfounded by these ideas: “We are just survival machines: self-propelled vehicles blindly programmed to preserve selfish molecules known as genes. This is the truth that still continues to amaze me. Despite the fact that she has been known to me for more than a year, I just can’t get used to her” 15 .

Man turned out to be not only the most ordinary animal, but, in addition, a disposable toy, an instrument of a community of selfish, selfish genes.

Indeed, for one of Hamilton's readers, the selfish gene theory turned out to be a real tragedy. The scientist argued that altruism is just genetic egoism. Determined to refute this harsh conclusion, George Price studied genetics on his own. But instead of proving the falsity of the statement, he only substantiated its undeniable correctness. In addition, he simplified mathematical calculations by proposing his own equation, and also made a number of important additions to the theory itself. The researchers began to cooperate, but Price, who was showing growing symptoms of mental instability, eventually turned headlong into religion, gave all his possessions to the poor and committed suicide in an empty London closet. Among his few possessions were found letters from Hamilton 16 .

However, most scientists simply hoped that over time, Williams and Hamilton would fade into the shadows. The very phrase "selfish gene" sounded too Hobbesian, and this repelled the bulk of sociologists. More conservative evolutionary biologists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin fought a never-ending rearguard fight. Like Kropotkin, they were clearly disgusted by the reduction of any manifestation of altruism to fundamental egoism, as insisted on by Williams and Hamilton and colleagues (we will see later that such an interpretation is wrong). It's like drowning the diversity of nature in the icy waters of self-interest, they resented, paraphrasing Friedrich Engels 17 . author Jeta Casilda

CHAPTER 12 The Selfish Meme (Evil?) Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, coined the term "meme" to refer to a piece of information that, through learning or imitation, can spread through society in the same way that a preferred gene spreads through society.

The book of the famous scientist, English biologist Richard Dawkins "The Selfish Gene" caused a controversial reaction in the literary and scientific circles. In it, he popularizes a gene-centric view of evolution, introduces the concept of "meme", meaning a cultural unit that one person can copy and transfer to another. This information has properties for mutagenesis, natural selection and artificial selection. It is noteworthy that the release of the book was marked by positive reviews of this work, but after several years this work caused heated debate. Some, such as well-known scientists W. Hamilton, D. Williams, and R. Trivers, expressed positive opinions about this book, seeing somewhere even innovation in the methods and approaches of the theory of the selfish gene, while others, especially believers, called the book extremist .

Critics criticized Richard Dawkins for the fatality of this theory, for the fact that too much in our life is predetermined even before birth, and what a person will be, all this is determined at the gene level. However, the author of The Selfish Gene says that there are inclinations that are given to us from birth, but we can change them. Only humans are capable of this. Under the influence of society, upbringing, education, we are able to fight the tyranny of selfish replicators. In the "Gene Machine" section, the scientist explains that genes are not strings in the hands of a puppeteer with which he controls his puppets. Genes only control protein synthesis in the cell. And in the course of the evolution of genes, a developed brain arose that is able to adapt to environmental conditions, assess the situation, simulate it and make independent decisions. Genes can only give general recommendations on what to do. For example, how to avoid pain, danger, etc. In other words, the author does not deny that not everything in the body depends on genetics. Culture and education play an important role in this process. We ourselves can soften our "selfish gene".

The main feature of any individual is selfishness. It is closely related to the process of evolution and natural selection, where the strong always win over the weak. Weakened individuals do not survive. Nothing has changed in our modern world. Successful people are often those who are willing to go over the heads of other people for the sake of their goal. This is an experience, an instinct, a gene that came to us from those distant times, when people lived in caves and hunted mammoths. If you are not a strong, hardy egoist, you will simply be killed. Although wild times have passed, our genetic memory, experience, remembers all this. And that is why it is so important from an early age to learn altruism, to help others, because such qualities are absolutely not inherent in our biological nature, says the author of the book The Selfish Gene. We can achieve this only by hard work on ourselves, says Richard Dawkins.

On our literary site, you can download the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins for free in formats suitable for different devices - epub, fb2, txt, rtf. Do you like to read books and always follow the release of new products? We have a large selection of books of various genres: classics, modern science fiction, literature on psychology and children's editions. In addition, we offer interesting and informative articles for beginner writers and all those who want to learn how to write beautifully. Each of our visitors will be able to find something useful and exciting.

A clear indication of how popular this essentially dead dogma still remains is the frenzied demand enjoyed by Richard Dawkins' scientifically illiterate book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins puts forward the theory that genes created us so that we could spread and reproduce them. Using logic to make completely illogical conclusions, he not only wrote an absurd parody of science fiction, but also left far behind the most severe reductionism, reducing organisms to the status of simple biological machines in the service of genes.

After all, Dawkins points out, genes last for many generations, while humans only have one life. Genes are the driver, and man is just a machine that needs to be replaced with a new model after it has run 5 million miles or lived 120 years, whichever comes first. Dawkins' suggestion is akin to the ancient belief that the chicken is simply a tool for eggs to produce new eggs.

But why is the gene called selfish? Therefore, argues Dawkins, genes have the same desire to survive as we do, and they ensure their own survival, not caring about the survival of the organism or even the species in which they live. According to this theory, the goal of evolutionary adaptation from generation to generation is not to ensure the survival of the organism, but to increase the reproductive capacity of the genes themselves. And even if such an adaptation does not ensure the survival of the organism, the selfish gene does not care about this.

And since the central dogma says that everything in life is determined by genes, it is quite reasonable to reason (however unreasonable this reasoning may be) that, in the words of Dawkins, "we are all born selfish." And he also believes that natural selection favors those who cheat, lie, dodge and exploit others - they say that genes that encourage children to behave immorally gain an advantage over other genes. Altruism, according to the author of this book, is inherently unproductive, since it goes against the tendencies of natural selection. The same goes for the practice of taking foster children; Dawkins believes this is "against our instincts and the interests of our selfish genes".

Fortunately, few people embrace Dawkins' extreme materialistic views. Nevertheless, as we have seen with Enron, his ideas serve as the scientific basis (or so it seems to some) for the most ruthless manifestations of social, commercial, industrial, and governmental Darwinism. Dawkins calls himself an atheist and claims to believe in neither a caring Creator nor caring people. Unlike many humanists, who also do not believe in a personal God, he simply brushes aside everything that is not deterministic, materialistic and overtly selfish.

If survival equals success (as Dawkins argues), then metastatic cancer is highly successful. Exactly until then, of course, until he kills the owner. However (assuming the idea that our DNA controls our fate) at the time of the death of the host, the selfish genes that caused cancer had already managed to ensure their survival by introducing themselves into the genetic structure of the host's offspring, in which future copies of this gene will repeat this gene again and again. the same process... until the disastrous situation spreads like a cancer.

There is a feeling that from the point of view of the biosphere, human activity is like a cancerous tumor that reproduces and copies itself until it destroys its environment. Now, when humanity has gone out into space, we have taken the first step towards leaving our beloved Earth to die and go ourselves to infect new planetary systems - thereby ensuring our further survival.