The Selfish Gene The purpose of this rese

The purpose of this research is to examine Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene. The plan of the research will be to set forth the general principle and theme of The Selfish Gene, and then to select two related chapters from the book for purposes of critical analysis, with a view toward showing the principal pattern of ideas emerging therein, and the relationship of the chapters to the overall design of the work.

The main idea of The Selfish Gene appears to be something of a tautology: that there is a biogenetic process of cloning that supersedes or informs virtually all other biological processes. That process has implications for the development, experience, and (especially) survival of individual organisms and for species as a whole. Labeling himself a neo-Darwinist because he is explicating evolutionary theory, he states his premise in the initial preface: "We are survival machines--robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes" (v). It is important to note that Dawkins both expresses and implies that his discussion is partly metaphorical. That is, when he refers to the selfish gene, he is not putting a moral construction on the term. Selfish in the context Dawkins uses it refers to biological mechanisms of genetic survival, which are undertaken by various species in competition between species and within species. To the degree conscious behavior is a factor of such processes, it can be connected to genetic behavior. Yet Dawkins

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characteristics. Genetically fostered survival strategy for the male results in a continuum of more or less philandering behavior (faithful and philanderer), while strategy for the female results in a continuum of more or less coy behavior (coy and fast). Dawkins says that differences in behavior can be traced to conflicts between the sexes, even though individual organisms within species seek to foster their survival by means of reproduction. The kind of behavior in which both males and females engage is aimed at fostering the survival of their genetic type (e.g., coy or fast). The implication for ESS, Dawkins concludes, are that when (for example) a coy female deviates from coy to fast behavior, or when a fast female enters a population dominated by coy females, there will also be a deviation in the survival strategies of the other sex. The coy female is one who withholds sexual favors while demanding some kind of courtship or proof of fidelity on the part of male mates. Her survival strategy is one that seeks domestic bliss and long-term mate commitment. Philandering males have no taste for domesticity and move on to fast females. This exacts an evolutionary price, however, not in the failure of a coy female to mate but in th

Category: Psychology - T