Selfish Gene Sparknotes

With his provoking work entitled The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins attempts to answer such questions as he proposes a shift in the evolutionary paradigm. Working through the metaphor of a "selfish gene", Dawkins constructs an evolutionary model using a gene as the fundamental unit of selection, opposed to the more commonly accepted belief of the species as the unit of selection.

In the modern world, mankind is surrounding by a plethora of unique animals, plants, and other organism that have a certain natural design all their own. For instance, every organism appears to be best suited in their natural environment, as they are usually able thrive under unique conditions that may not optimal for every organism. Thus, it would appear as though divine intervention was necessary for this perfect design and placement of an organism into their environment. Consequently, this was the ideology for many centuries until Charles Darwin explained how these “illusions” fit into his theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection stated that the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, such as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations (Cite). Although it is widely accepted that many of human’s physical traits are inherited from their parents, the notion that the mind has evolved and is designed to function is certain ways is still controversial (Cite). With that being said, the majority of theories that illustrate how the mind develops are still being debated. Moreover, the

Every living thing on this planet has evolved from the same original specie. Having this information, could it not be concluded that all living things are, to some degree, related? Yes. To further explain, evolution is a theory that states that organisms have diversified or in other words, have changed into a more complex living thing. In the book Inherit The Wind, the townsfolk of the play disagree heavily with the theory of evolution. Common ancestry is the theory that states that all living things share a common ancestor or common descendent, which then ties into evolution. Speciation, both allopatric and parapatric, show evidence for common ancestry. Speciation is when new species arise due to an evolutionary process. There are multiple and observable accounts that are used to support the theory of common ancestry. Charles Darwin’s book, The Descent of Man And Selection in Relation to Sex, goes into specifics with these accounts with placental mammals. Placental mammals are mammals that nourish their embryos using the mother 's blood supply. Common Ancestry in placental mammals provides sufficient scientific evidence, such as the similarities in bone structures and genetic coding between animals, to support the theory of evolution.

I find the field of biology fascinating and I thoroughly enjoy learning the subject. It is an ever changing and developing subject with new advancements every day. These advancements can change people’s lives for the better and I want to be part of that.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

The book of Genesis states that God created life in an array of fixed species and it was not until the 19th Century, that paleontological discoveries started to cast doubt on creationism and Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution in On the Origin of the Species (Clegg, 2007, p.120). The two processes that are involved in evolution and the fundamental connections between the evolutionary process and behaviour, in particular that of altruism and whether it can be seen as an adaptive behaviour are considered here.

Charles Darwin includes an effective beginning for his work, Natural Selection. By introducing his theory with a set of questions, interest to continue reading is developed. One question Darwin poses is the possibility of how one can survive, taking into account the circumstances of climate and traits. An interesting concept Darwin alludes to is that some individuals possess certain traits that enable them to survive. Another method implemented in the beginning of Darwin’s piece is the broadness of the context. Darwin does not go into any specifics right away, as the reader will learn more as they continue. “Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life” (Darwin 900). Darwin accounts for how unique each organism is, but generalizes the statement by categorizing all organisms as complex. By doing this, the reader is inclined to continue

For more than 150 years, a revolutionary idea has been spreading all over the world. It helped us discover our origins and revealed our place in nature. It led to the unification of once independent fields of scientific inquiry. And it is being used today to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing modern civilization. But its implications go far beyond science. It has shaped our culture, politics, philosophy and religion, and it has been used to justify war and genocide. That idea is Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Charles Darwin is famous for his theories regarding evolution and natural selection. In his 1871 book, Charles Darwin explains the origin of morality through studying the behavior of various species. In his essay, “Origin of the Moral Sense” Charles Darwin uses his theory of evolution to explain the origin of morality through the study of animals, specifically mammals. Darwin’s main theory of the “Origin of the Moral Sense” is that humans have natural social instincts which in turn gives them a sense of naturally occurring morality. Darwin’s ideas surrounding morality and a natural social instinct have been echoed and added to by philosophers, almost a century later, David Barash and Robert Trivers.

In what he called the ‘survival of the fittest’, Darwin suggested that through the process of natural selection animals with particular characteristics, as a result of possessing advantageous alleles, will survive. However, those with maladaptive genes cannot adapt to changes in environmental conditions, so will die or become extinct. Dowling (1994) stated that this process depends on three principles: species diversity, interaction and the spread of a species as a result of differential amplification. Sexual selection is another component of Darwin’s research, which explains the best strategies adopted for passing on genes to offspring. Moreover, there are problems with Darwin’s theory such as his attempts to generalise animal behaviour to the way in which humans interact in their environment. However, he has presented compelling evidence which is very scientific in its approach and methodology. Furthermore, contrary to Darwin’s evolutionary idea of survival of an individual, Dawkins (1976) suggested that the survival of the genes is more important.

After Charles Darwin published his book “On the origins of species” in 1859, evolution became a hot topic of discussion; the notion of the human race improving itself by selective breeding started to spread (Winfield, 2012). For years

This paper is an integrated critique of Richard Dawkins’, The Selfish Gene, and Jonathan Kozol’s, Savage Inequalities. The premise of my critique is to compare how these two books by two different authors on two different subjects can relate. I believe this is done by exampling how Dawkins describes the general make up of individuals and how they interact in their specific groups that they as a species have come up in over millennia and how Kozol describes that where you are born and raised has predetermined the path that you will be forced down in a cultural and more specifically educational since for the rest of your life. The bottom line is a place for everyone and every one in their place.

Evolutionary scholars from Darwin (1871) ahead contended that human profound quality is persistent with social practices in nonhuman creatures and that we can clarify moral conclusions as to the consequence of characteristic choice (Cruz, 2017). To start with, he helps us to remember a reality that man is a social creature: people live in a family, in a gathering, and in a general public; and this is an organic actuality like that honey bees and ants live in a province. Furthermore, any social creature has social impulses which bolster their social life. By "social impulses" he implies intrinsic or hereditary affinities "to enjoy the general public of its colleagues, to feel a specific measure of sensitivity for them, and to perform different administrations for them (n.d.)." The second phase of Darwin's contention is worried about a fanciful mental process which may offer ascent to something like good sense or good feeling (n.d.).

An oxymoron appeared to exist between Darwin’s theory of natural selection (1859) and the definition of altruism (West et al., 2006). Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness (1964) appeared to mediate this problem. However, the theory does not explain altruistic acts towards non-kin in line with natural selection. Reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971), indirect altruism (Alexander, 1987) and strong reciprocity (Gintis, 2000) have been proposed to resolve this conflict. It is of note that behaviour in all theories has been noted in animals, but will not be discussed further. Instead, the essay will focus on which theories are most relevant when understanding human sociality, with the author explaining why no sole theory is seen to describe the phenomenon. All theories will be discussed in relation to evolutionary stable strategies (ESS), which refers to plans that when adopted by a majority of members in a population that restrict any other action existing, which could yield higher reproductive success (Smith & Price, 1973).

Charles Darwin was a man who shaped the way in which we think about evolution in modern times. He brought forth and described the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. To fully understand modern evolutionary thoughts it is necessary for one to completely understand the early theories of Charles Darwin. In this paper I will provide the reader with a complete background on Charles Darwin, describe his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and discuss his theory of natural selection.