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William (Bill) D. Hamilton
One of Dawkins’s scientific rivals in The Selfish Gene. Lorenz, like Wilson and Wynne-Edwards, argues that sometimes an animal might sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the group or species. This view is called “group selection,” meaning that evolution happens on the group or species level. Dawkins thinks that Lorenz is wrong, and spends a lot of time showing why he believes the “group selection” theorists are incorrect.
Konrad Lorenz Quotes in The Selfish Gene
The The Selfish Gene quotes below are all either spoken by Konrad Lorenz or refer to Konrad Lorenz . 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 4 Quotes
Nowadays the intricate mutual co-evolution of genes has proceeded to such an extent that the communal nature of an individual survival machine is virtually unrecognizable. Indeed, many biologists do not recognize it, and will disagree with me.
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After his chapter on genes—what they are, how they’re distributed throughout the body, and most importantly, how they function—Dawkins turns to organisms, or as he calls them, “survival machines.” His first task is to dismantle the notion of a survival machine as an individual. It acts, operates, and feels like an individual, but actually, it functions that way because it contains a colony of genes acting in mutual cooperation for their individual survival. Each gene that cooperates has a better chance of survival when it combines with others to divide and conquer the task of building a survival machine, because 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 asperior
Chapter 6 Quotes
[A] gene might be able to assist replicas of itself that are sitting in other bodies. If so, this would appear as individual altruism but it would be brought about by gene selfishness.
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Many group selectionists rely on the observation that family members often sacrifice their individual well-being (or jeopardize their own chances of survival) for their relatives, to defend the idea of altruism in nature. When Dawkins tackles the issue of why family members are nice to each other, he immediately dismantles the group selectionists’ notion with a very simple reminder: he refers to a gene as a single entity, but really what counts as an individual gene is the gene plus all its replicas in the universe. They are all copies or clones of each other, spread out into other survival 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 om
Chapter 11 Quotes
We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism—something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of the world. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.
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A couple of times so far, Dawkins has asked if there’s anything that makes humans different from other organisms on Earth. It would be quite depressing if it turned out that we’re no different from a cell, or bit of seaweed in our purpose. Here, Dawkins provides his answer. In fact, there is something about humans that makes us unique. We shouldn’t despair that we’re just survival machines for genes, because we also have memes: our culture. We have significantly more agency when it comes to memes. We can choose which ones stick with us, and which ones we’ll spread 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
Chapter 12 Quotes
I agree with Axelrod and Hamilton that many wild animals and plants are engaged in ceaseless games of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, played out in evolutionary time.
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After discussing cultural evolution, Dawkins returns to the topic of biological evolution. He decides to tackle the issue of reciprocal altruism. He’s already argued that relatives are kind to each other because they share a lot of genes, and acts of selflessness help their genes living in other bodies to survive. Now he addresses cases in which unrelated individuals are nice to each other. Animals often groom each other, for example, to pick parasites off each other’s backs or heads, typically from places that an animal can’t reach on their own body. It would seem that this altruistic. Group selectionists 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 vol
Chapter 13 Quotes
The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator.
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Dawkins has just suggested that scientists think about genes and phenotypic effects, instead of individuals and environments. This suggestion is important for two reasons. First, it’s really the genes that matter—and their phenotypic effects extend beyond the individuals they’re in. A phenotypic effect of a gene can easily manifest in another individual’s body, or elsewhere in the environment. Dawkins thinks it’s no wonder that scientists started talking about organisms when they thought about evolution, because that’s what they see when they look around them. But he really thinks that when it comes down to it, the only thing that matters 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. V
Epilogue Quotes
An organism has a frequency of one, and therefore cannot ‘serve as a unit of natural selection.’ Not in the same sense of replicator anyway.
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As Dawkins is ending his argument, he restates, for the final time, what he believes to be a central flaw in the group selectionist picture of evolution. Group selectionists like V.C. Wynne-Edwards and E.O. Wilson think that organisms (or groups of organisms) evolve on an individual or species level, respectively. But Dawkins believes that evolution is a process by which a replicator attempts to become more numerous, and therefore that the evolutionary unit is the replicator itself. In living things, this replicator tends to be the gene. The success of a gene can be measured by counting how many copies 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 suscip
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Konrad Lorenz Character Timeline in The Selfish Gene
The timeline below shows where the character Konrad Lorenz appears in The Selfish Gene. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Why Are People?
...that until now, these behaviors have been mischaracterized, because a lot of scientists, including Konrad Lorenz, think that evolution happens to groups, or species. But Dawkins thinks that humans (and every...
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Chapter 5: Aggression
...and cannibalism do happen in nature, but nowhere near as often as one might think. Lorenz, for example, talks a lot about the “restrained” way in which many animals fight. Lorenz...
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