People

Richard Dawkins 1941 - England

Encyclopedia Entries

Wikipedia Dawkins, Richard

Questions of 

Sociobiology

Reading

• The ontogeny of a pecking preference in domestic chicks. Zeitschrift fŸr Tierpsychologie 25, 170-186. (1968)
• Bees are easily distracted. Science 165, 751. (1969)
• Selective neurone death as a possible memory mechanism. Nature 229, 118-119. (1971)
• Hierarchical organisation: a candidate principle for ethology. In Growing Points in Ethology (eds P. P. G. Bateson & R. A. Hinde), pp. 7-54· (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976)
• The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976)
• Replicator selection and the extended phenotype. Zeitschrift fŸr Tierpsychologie 47, 61-76. (1978)
• In defense of selfish genes. Philosophy 56, 556-573 (1979)
• Twelve misunderstandings of kin selection. Zeitschrift fŸr Tierpsychologie 51, 184-200. (1979)
• Defining sociobiology. Nature 280, 427-428. (1979)
• Good strategy or evolutionarily stable strategy? In Sociobiology: Beyond Nature/Nurture? (eds G. W. Barlow & J. Silverberg), pp. 331-367. (Boulder: Westview Press. 1980)
• Selfish Genes in race or politics (letter). Nature, Vol.289, No.5798, p.528 (1981)
• The Extended Phenotype (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982)
• The myth of genetic determinism. New Scientist, Vol.93, No.1287, pp.27-30 (1982)
• The necessity of Darwinism. New Scientist, Vol.94, No.1301, pp.130-132 (1982)
• Replicators and vehicles. In Current Problems in Sociobiology (ed. King's College Sociobiology Group), pp. 45-64. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1982)
• Universal Darwinism. In D.S.Bendall (ed.) Evolution from Molecules to Men, pp. 403-25. (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1982)
• Opportunity costs of inbreeding. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol.6, No.1, pp.105-106 (1983)
• Adaptationism was always predictive and needed no defense. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol.6, No.3, pp.360-361 (1983)
• Replicators, consequences, and displacement activities. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol.7, No.4, pp.486-487 (1984)
• Review of Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature by Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin and R.C.Lewontin. From "Sociobiology: the debate continues", New Scientist 24 January (1985)
• Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria (book review). Nature, Vol.316, No.6030, pp.683-684 (1985)
• The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W.W.Norton, 1986)
• Wealth, polygyny, and reproductive success. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol.9, No.1, pp.190-191 (1986)
• Creation and natural-selection. New Scientist, Vol.111, No.1527, pp.34-38 (1986)
• The Blind Watchmaker (letter). New Scientist, Vol.112, No.1532, p.65 (1986)
• Sociobiology: the new storm in a teacup. In Science and Beyond (eds. S.Rose and L. Appignanesi). (Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 61-78. 1986)
• Arguments on Evolution: A Paleontologist Perspective by Hoffman, A. (book review). Nature, Vol.340, No.6228, p.25 (1989)
• Employment niche (letter). New Scientist, Vol.115, No.1571, p.64 (1987)
• Books for scraping (letter). New Scientist, Vol.120, No.1633, p.65 (1988)
• Computerized genes (letter). New Scientist, Vol.123, No.1675, p.68 (1989)
• Universal parasitism and the co-evolution of extended phenotypes. Whole Earth Review, n62 p90(10) (1989)
• The evolution of evolvability. In Artificial Life: The Quest for a New Creation - Levy S. (Sante Fe: Addison-Wesley. pp. 201-20. 1989).
• Review of Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution By Maitland A. Edey and Donald C. Johanson. Illustrated. 418 pp. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. New York Times, (Apr 9, 1989)
• The Selfish Gene, new edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)
• Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould (book review). Sunday Telegraph, 25th Feb (1990)
• Mystery Dance by Margulius L. & Sagan D. (book review). Nature, Vol.354, No.6353, pp.442-443 (1991)
• Parasites, desiderata lists and the paradox of the organism. Parasitology, Vol.100, No.S, pp.S 63-S 73 (1991)
• Evolution of the Mind (letter). Nature, Vol.351, No.6329, p.686 (1991)
• Evolutionary Chemistry - Life in a test tube (editorial). Nature, Vol.357, No.6375, pp.198-199 (1992)
• Artificial Life: The Quest for a new Creation by S. Levy (book review). Nature, Vol.360, No.6399, pp.25-26 (1992)
• Worlds in Microcosm (lecture). Appears in Humanity, Environment and God: Glasgow Centenary Gifford Lectures, edited by Neil Spurway, pp. 106-125. (Blackwell Press, Oxford, 1993)
• The "awe" factor. Skeptical Inquirer pg. 242 (Spring 1993)
• African Eve's Descendants. Times Literary Supplement March 26, 11-12 (1993)
• Meet my cousin, the chimpanzee. New Scientist, Vol.138, No.1876, pp.36-38, Jun 5 (1993)
• Viruses of the mind. Free Inquiry, Summer, 34-41 (1993)
• The evolutionary future of man. Economist Sep 11, p.87 (1993)
• Burying the vehicle (discussion). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol.17, No.4, pp.616-617 (1994)
• The eye in a twinkling. Nature, Vol.368, No.6473, pp.690-691, Apr 21 (1994)
• The telephone exchange of life. Spectator Jun 11 (1994)
• An atheist's vision of life. Spectator Aug 6 (1994)
• Myth, metaphor and hypothesis - How anthropomorphism defeats science (reply). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London - Series B Biological Sciences. Vol.349, No.1328, pp.219-224 (1995)
• Putting away childish things. Skeptical Inquirer Jan, pp.31-36 (1995)
• Where d'you get those peepers? New Statesman & Society Jun 16, pg.29 (1995)
• The evolved imagination. Natural History, Vol.104, No.9, p.8 (1995)
• River out of Eden (New York: Basic Books. 1995)
• God's utility function. Scientific American Nov, pp.80-85 (1995) - (reprint of a chapter from River out of Eden)
• Climbing Mount Improbable (W.W.Norton, New York and Viking Penguin, London. 1996)
• Try a close encounter with truth (book review of The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan). THE TIMES, February 15 (1996)
• The Pope's message on evolution and four commentaries: 3. Obscurantism to the rescue - Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol.72, No.4, pp.397-399 (1997)
• Religion and science (letter). Bioessays, Vol.19, No.8, p.743 (1997)
• Human Chauvinism (book review of Full House by Stephen Jay Gould, also published as Life’s Grandeur). Evolution, Vol. 51, No. 3, June (1997)
• Trial by Jury. The Observer [London],  Nov 16 (1997) - Published as "Three herring gull chicks . . . the reason juries don't work"
• The Evolution of Bill Clinton: Sex and Power. The Observer [London] Mar 22 (1998)
• When Religion Steps on Science's Turf & The Emptiness of Theology. Free Inquiry, Vol 18, No 2 (Spring 1998)

• The Improbability of God - Op-Ed article Free Imquiry, Vol 18, No 3 (Summer 1998)

co-authored

• Dawkins, R. & Dawkins, M. Decisions and the uncertainty of behaviour. Behaviour 45, 83-103. (1973)
• Dawkins, R. & Carlisle, T. R. Parental investment, mate desertion and a fallacy. Nature 161, 131-133. (1976)
• Dawkins, R. & Krebs, J. R. Animal signals: information or manipulation? In Behavioural Ecology (eds J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies), pp. 282--309. (Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. 1978)
• Dawkins, R. & Krebs, J.R. Arms races between and within species. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 205: 489-511 (1979)
• Dawkins, R. & H. Jane Brockman, Joint Nesting in a Digger Wasp as an Evolutionarily Stable Preadaptation to Social Life, Behaviour, 71, pp. 203-245 (1979).
• Dawkins, R. & Brockmann, H. J. Do digger wasps commit the Concorde fallacy? Animal Behaviour 28, 892-896. (1980)
• Oliver R. Goodenough & Dawkins, The "St Jude" mind virus. Nature, Vol.371, No.6492, pp.23-24 (1994)

Writing available on the net

Commentaries

Freewill and Determinism (Richard Dawkins interview) The Philosopher's Magazine

Quotations

"I think that the Bible as literature should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum – you can’t understand English literature and culture without it. But insofar as theology studies the nature of the divine, it will earn the right to be taken seriously when it provides the slightest, smallest smidgen of a reason for believing in the existence of the divine. Meanwhile, we should devote as much time to studying serious theology as we devote to studying serious fairies and serious unicorns."
[The Independent, 23/12/1998]

"In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
['God's Utility Function', Scientific American]

"The river of my title is a river of DNA, and it flows through time, not space. It is a river of information, not a river of bones and tissues; a river of abstract instructions for building bodies, not a river of solid bodies themselves."
[River Out of Eden]

"This brings me to the first point I want to make about what this book is not. I am not advocating a morality based on evolution. I am saying how things have evolved. I am not saying how we humans morally ought to behave."
[The Selfish Gene]

"To this day, and in quarters where they should know better, Darwinism is widely regarded as a theory of 'chance'. It is grindingly, creakingly, crashingly obvious that, if Darwinism were really a theory of chance, it couldn't work."
[Climbing Mount Improbable]

"We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment."
[The Selfish Gene]