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2 unusual facts about The Selfish Gene


The Selfish Gene

In March 2011, Audible Inc published an audiobook edition narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward.

In the foreword to the book's 30th-anniversary edition, Dawkins said he "can readily see that the book's title might give an inadequate impression of its contents" and in retrospect thinks he should have taken Tom Maschler's advice and called the book The Immortal Gene.


Unweaving the Rainbow

Driven by the responses to his books The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker wherein readers resented his naturalistic world view, seeing it as depriving life of meaning, Dawkins felt the need to explain that, as a scientist, he saw the world as full of wonders and a source of pleasure.


see also

Gene-centered view of evolution

Besides Richard Dawkins and George C. Williams, other biologists and philosophers have expanded and refined the selfish-gene theory, such as John Maynard Smith, George R. Price, Robert Trivers, David Haig, Helena Cronin, David Hull, Philip Kitcher, and Daniel C. Dennett.

Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think

Alan Grafen – The Intellectual Contribution of The Selfish Gene to Evolutionary Theory