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Richard Dawkins
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Blind Watchmakerby Richard DawkinsISBN 0141026162 (0-14-102616-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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Climbing Mount Improbableby Richard DawkinsISBN 0141026170 (0-14-102617-0)
Softcover, Penguin Books, Limited
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The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Geneby Richard Dawkins , Dennett, Daniel (AFT)ISBN 0192880519 (0-19-288051-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene'Book summary:People commonly view evolution as a process of competition between individuals--known as "survival of the fittest"--with the individual representing the "unit of selection." Richard Dawkins offers a controversial reinterpretation of that idea in The Extended Phenotype, now being reissued to coincide with the publication of the second edition of his highly-acclaimed The Selfish Gene. He proposes that we look at evolution as a battle between genes instead of between whole organisms. We can then view Nanges in phenotypes--the end products of genes, like eye color or leaf shape, which are usually considered to increase the fitness of an individual--as serving the evolutionary interests of genes.
Dawkins makes a convincing case that considering one's body, personality, and environment as a field of combat in a kind of "arms race" between genes fighting to express themselves on a strand of DNA can clarify and extend the idea of survival of the fittest. This influential and controversial book illuminates the complex world of genetics in an engaging, lively manner. [via]More editions of The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene:
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God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theoryby Richard Dawkins , Dennett, Daniel (AFT)ISBN 0195161998 (0-19-516199-8)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory'Book summary:In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, Intelligent Design Theory (ID) proposes an alternative to accepted accounts of evolutionary theory: that life is so complex, and that the universe is so fine-tuned for the appearance of life, that the only plausible explanation is the existence of an intelligent designer. For many ID theorists, the designer is taken to be the god of Christianity.
Niall Shanks has written the first accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new intellectual movement. Shanks locates the growth of ID in the last two decades of the twentieth century in the growing influence of the American religious right. But as he shows, its roots go back beyond Aquinas to Ancient Greece. After looking at the historical roots of ID, Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, discussing modern understandings of thermodynamics, and how self-organizing processes lead to complex physical, chemical, and biological systems. He considers cosmological arguments for ID rooted in so-called "anthropic coincidences" and also tackles new biochemical arguments for ID based on "irreducible biological complexity." Throughout he shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations.
While ID has been proposed as a scientific alternative to evolutionary biology, Shanks argues that ID is in fact "old creationist wine in new designer label bottles" and moreover is a serious threat to the scientific and democratic values that are our cultural and intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment. [via]More editions of God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory:
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The Meme Machineby Susan Blackmore, Richard DawkinsISBN 019286212X (0-19-286212-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Meme Machine'Book summary:What is a meme? First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation: stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, ways of plowing a field or throwing a baseball or making a sculpture. The meme is also one of the most important--and controversial--concepts to emerge since The Origin of the Species appeared nearly 150 years ago. In The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as the design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection." Indeed, Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive--making tools, for example, or using language--survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible. These memes then passed themselves on from generation to generation by helping to ensure that the genes of those who acquired them also survived and reproduced. Applying this theory to many aspects of human life, Blackmore offers brilliant explanations for why we live in cities, why we talk so much, why we can't stop thinking, why we behave altruistically, how we choose our mates, and much more. With controversial implications for our religious beliefs, our free will, our very sense of "self," The Meme Machine offers a provocative theory everyone will soon be talking about. [via]
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Pocket Watchmakerby Richard DawkinsISBN 0146002415 (0-14-600241-5)
Softcover, Penguin Books, Limited
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Red Strangersby Richard Dawkins , Elspeth HuxleyISBN 0141188502 (0-14-118850-2)
Softcover, Penguin Books, Limited
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The Selfish Geneby Richard DawkinsISBN 0192860925 (0-19-286092-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Selfish Gene'Book summary:Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.
Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. --Rob Lightner [via]
Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonderby Richard DawkinsISBN 0140283846 (0-14-028384-6)
Softcover, Northwestern University Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder'Book summary:Why do poets and artists so often disparage science in their work? For that matter, why does so much scientific literature compare poorly with, say, the phone book? After struggling with questions like these for years, biologist Richard Dawkins has taken a wide-ranging view of the subjects of meaning and beauty in Unweaving the Rainbow, a deeply humanistic examination of science, mysticism, and human nature. Notably strong-willed in a profession of bet-hedgers and wait-and-seers, Dawkins carries the reader along on a romp through the natural and cultural worlds, determined that "science, at its best, should leave room for poetry."
Inspired by the frequently asked question, "Why do you bother getting up in the morning?" following publication of his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins set out determined to show that understanding nature's mechanics need not sap one's zest for life. Alternately enlightening and maddening, Unweaving the Rainbow will appeal to all thoughtful readers, whether wild-eyed technophiles or grumpy, cabin-dwelling Luddites. Excoriations of newspaper astrology columns follow quotes from Blake and Shakespeare, which are sandwiched between sparkling, easy-to-follow discussions of probability, behavior, and evolution. In Dawkins's world (and, he hopes, in ours), science is poetry; he ends his journey by referring to his title's author and subject, maintaining that "A Keats and a Newton, listening to each other, might hear the galaxies sing." --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder:
- Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder: ISBN 0141026189 (0-14-102618-9)
Softcover, Penguin Books, Limited - Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder: ISBN 0140264086 (0-14-026408-6)
Softcover, Penguin Books, Limited - Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder: ISBN 0140283846 (0-14-028384-6)
Softcover, Northwestern University Press
- Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder: ISBN 0141026189 (0-14-102618-9)
Unweaving the Rainbow Showcardby Richard DawkinsISBN 0149023359 (0-14-902335-9)
Hardcover, Penguin Books India PVT, Limited
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The View from Mount Improbableby Richard DawkinsISBN 0141022191 (0-14-102219-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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