Reading Order
The Selfish Gene Reading Order
Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (1976) is the most influential popular science book in the history of evolutionary biology — the book that introduced the 'gene's eye view' of evolution and the concept of the meme, arguing that the fundamental unit of natural selection is not the individual organism or the species but the gene, and that organisms are 'survival machines' built by genes to propagate themselves.
Where to start
The Selfish Gene
Complete The Selfish Gene Book List
- 1Buy
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins·1976·The foundational work. Start here. - 2Buy
The Extended Phenotype
Richard Dawkins·1982·Dawkins's professional sequel — a more technical development of the gene's-eye view, arguing that genes' phenotypic effects extend beyond individual organisms into the environment. Read second. - 3Buy
The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins·1986·Dawkins's account of how natural selection — 'blind' to any goal or intention — can produce the appearance of design. Read third for the complete early Dawkins arc.
The Selfish Gene — Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'selfish gene' mean?
The 'selfish gene' is Dawkins's deliberately provocative personification of the gene as the fundamental unit of natural selection — arguing that genes 'behave' as if they were selfish in the sense that only genes that are good at propagating copies of themselves into the next generation survive in the long run. The metaphor does not mean that genes have intentions or desires; it means that we can understand evolution by asking what would maximize the copying success of any particular gene, rather than asking what would benefit the individual organism or the species. The gene's-eye view explains behaviors that seem to contradict individual self-interest — especially altruism toward genetic relatives — as forms of genetic self-interest: helping copies of your own genes survive in other bodies.
What is a 'meme' as Dawkins defined it?
Dawkins coined the term 'meme' in the final chapter of The Selfish Gene (1976) as the cultural analogue of the gene — a unit of cultural information that replicates, mutates, and competes for survival in the 'meme pool' of human minds. Examples he gave included tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, fashions, and ways of making pots or building arches. The meme is any cultural entity that spreads from mind to mind through imitation (from the Greek mimeme, contracted to rhyme with gene). Dawkins noted that successful memes — like successful genes — are those that are good at being copied, which may or may not correlate with being true or beneficial to their hosts. The internet age has given the word 'meme' a narrower, more specific meaning (an image-text combination spread online), but Dawkins's original definition was broader.
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