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Richard Dawkins
A geologist who developed the theory of evolution in the 1800s after taking a five-year sea voyage around the world and publishing The Origin of Species. Darwin argues that the biodiversity of the natural world is explained by natural selection, meaning organisms that are better adapted to their natural environments survive to reproduce and pass on their traits, which explains how species change over time. This view became central to life sciences research in the 1940s. People who follow this view are considered “Darwinian.” Dawkins is highly inspired by Darwin’s theory, though he thinks it hasn’t been taken seriously enough in the scientific world. Dawkins expands on Darwin’s view, but reframes evolution as something that happens to genes, rather than species.
Charles Darwin Quotes in The Selfish Gene
The The Selfish Gene quotes below are all either spoken by Charles Darwin or refer to Charles Darwin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
I shall argue that the fundamental unit of selection, and therefore of self-interest, is not the species, nor the group, nor even, strictly, the individual. It is the gene, the unit of heredity.
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Many scientists believe that altruism (kindness, or selflessness) exists in nature. They often see animals sacrifice themselves to help other animals. Mammals care for their children. Animals pick parasites off each other’s backs. Birds sound alarm calls to others when there’s a predator nearby, even if that makes the predator notice them more. Bees even kill themselves when they sting. The list goes on. Scientists like Konrad Lorenz, V. C. Wynne-Edwards, and E. O. Wilson explain these behaviors by suggesting that altruistic sacrifices help the group as a whole survive. Even if the individual dies, their species lives on. This Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur
Chapter 2 Quotes
They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.
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After asserting that people, like all living organisms, are essentially “survival machines” created by our genes to keep themselves alive, Richard Dawkins tells an origin story of life on Earth, to explain how genes came to exist, and then—many thousands of millions of years later—how we came to exist. Dawkins, drawing on Darwin, essentially condenses this history into a single process: evolution. For Dawkins, evolution is the story of replicating entities and the tools they create to survive. His story concludes with this quote, which sums up the entire history of life on Earth from the dawn of time to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenet
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Charles Darwin Character Timeline in The Selfish Gene
The timeline below shows where the character Charles Darwin appears in The Selfish Gene. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Why Are People?
...yet he believes there wasn’t have a credible explanation of why we exist until Charles Darwin argued that human beings evolved out of simple organisms. Many people still doubt Darwin’s theory...
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Darwin would perhaps articulate altruism like this: somebody who acts selflessly makes themselves slightly more likely...
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Chapter 2: The Replicators
At the start of the universe, there was just simplicity. Dawkins thinks Darwin’s theory is appealing because it explains how the universe could start out as simple and...
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Chapter 5: Aggression
...strategies is going to be one of the “most important advances to evolutionary theory since Darwin.” Dawkins thinks this type of explanation is important because it shows how a group of...
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Chapter 9: Battle of the Sexes
...for reasons like having long legs to escape predators, or strong arms to carry food. Darwin thought this was incorrect, and Dawkins thinks so, too. He thinks females want sons who...
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Chapter 10: You Scratch My Back, I’ll Ride on Yours
...the calling bird at greater risk of being eaten. It’s been such a problem for Darwin’s theory of evolution that scientists have thought up all sorts crazy explanations for bird alarm...
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...example, scratching each other’s backs to get rid of parasites) has selfish motivations as well. Darwin (and later Williams) thought that reciprocal altruism could evolve in populations that were able to...
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Chapter 11: Memes: The New Replicators
...to throw out the “gene” as the basis of evolution. He thinks this is more Darwinian than the other explanations, because evolution is so pervasive that there’s no need for it...
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Chapter 13: The Long Reach of the Gene
...“curly hair,” for example. Natural selection favors genes on the basis of their phenotypic effects. Darwinians often think of the phenotypic effects as converging in one organism. A gene that makes...
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Epilogue to 40th Anniversary Edition
...are concerned with how genes affect phenotypes based on what they’re made of. However, like Darwin, Dawkins is only concerned with how something become numerous in a population. He reiterates that...
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