|
If I was to summarise the The Selfish Gene (read it 15 years ago) I would say the book is about making the case that the gene is the unit of natural selection and not the whole organism. Genes within an organism compete with each other at the expense of the other genes and the organism as a whole.
If we examined the chromosomes of 100 random blood samples we would be able to sort the samples into two groups. Reproduction would be possible inter group and not intra group. This a fact. Is it useful in society? This is debateable.
The Selfish Gene makes the case that these selfish genes are responsible for a lot more of an organisms behaviour than we credit them for, including human behaviour, so it’s to the extreme of the "nature" end of the curve vs the nurture end. It’s been used as an excuse for bad behaviour like Darwin’s book.
At times it’s useful to replace the nature/nurture labels with left and right (in a political sense)
|