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The Selfish Gene & Evolutionary Theory

Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene in 1976, and it has become a mainstay in the study of evolutionary theory though it is controversial in nature (Dawkins, 1976). Dawkins believes the driving force behind survival is the gene, not the gene which most people refer to today, but an even smaller structure. He believes the gene is smaller than the gene as most people refer to it because it is known that "genes" may be quite long and also that they may become broken into pieces during genetic transfer. It is difficult to believe that long chain genes could survive intact for long over the course of evolution and therefore he proposes that it is the smaller subunits that are the true genes, or replicators, as he calls them, which carry the genetic information on through generation after generation.

Dawkins believes that these replicators influence our lives and what we do, just as geneticists believe this of traditional genes, and when he refers to the "selfish gene" he is not referring to any characteristics of humans as being selfish but to the characteristics of the replicators whose only purpose is reproduction of themselves (Dawkins, 1976). Dawkins theory of evolution is that in the "primordial soup" certain molecules became attracted to each other, and these molecules began to aggregate into longer and longer chains of molecules. As the "soup" became used up, these long chain molecules broke down other chains for additional molecules for their own chains. Certain of these molecules managed to attract a protein coat which protected them from being broken down and became the surviving replicators. Over time, the molecules aggregated into larger groups, becoming plants and animals which contained these replicators, whose only purpose was to reproduce their own kind.

Dawkins explains animal behavior through natural selection of the "selfish gene" in that just as Darwin theorized on the survival of the fittest, so...

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The Selfish Gene & Evolutionary Theory. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:54, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1703407.html