The Selfish Gene

Knowledge Graph: The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins, 1976)

Editorial spotlight: ↑ bodies as gene survival machines — the paradigm shift

Concepts

• Dawkins's replicator (importance 5): Any entity that makes copies of itself. The fundamental unit of evolution. Must have longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins's meme (importance 5): Cultural replicator analogous to genes. Ideas, tunes, fashions, techniques that spread from brain to brain. Unit of cultural evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11 'Memes: the new replicators').
• Dawkins's vehicle (importance 4): The organism as a temporary container built by replicators to aid their propagation. Vehicles die; replicators are potentially immortal.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) (importance 4): A strategy which, if adopted by most members of a population, cannot be invaded by any alternative strategy. Borrowed from Maynard Smith.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Dawkins's three replicator properties (importance 4): Successful replicators need: longevity (stability), fecundity (high copy rate), copying-fidelity (low error rate).. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Hamilton's inclusive fitness (importance 4): An organism's genetic success measured not just by own offspring but by effects on all relatives, weighted by relatedness.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• natural selection (Darwin) (importance 4): Differential survival and reproduction of variants. Dawkins's restatement: differential survival of genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• Dawkins's coefficient of relatedness (r) (importance 3): The probability that a gene in one individual is present in another due to common descent. Siblings: r=0.5, parent-child: r=0.5, cousins: r=0.125.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• Dawkins's primordial soup (importance 3): The early ocean rich in organic molecules where the first replicators arose by chance chemical combinations.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins's gene complex (importance 3): Successful genes work well together in combinations. The gene pool becomes co-adapted; genes are selected for compatibility with other genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (importance 3): Game theory scenario where mutual cooperation beats mutual defection, but individual defection beats individual cooperation. Repeated play enables cooperation.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 12).
• Dawkins's 'God meme' (importance 3): Religious ideas as memes with high survival value. God concept replicates because it provides psychological comfort and group cohesion.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins's extended phenotype (preview) (importance 3): Gene effects extend beyond the body — beaver dams, bird nests, parasite-induced behavior changes. Phenotype = all effects of genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — referenced, fully developed in 1982 book).
• Dawkins's 'green beard' effect (importance 3): Hypothetical: a gene causes green beard and recognition/aid to other green-beards. Altruism to gene copies in strangers.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• game theory in evolution (importance 3): Mathematical framework for analyzing strategic interactions. Maynard Smith applied to evolutionary contexts.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Trivers's parental investment (importance 3): The sex that invests more in offspring (usually females) becomes a limiting resource competed for by the other sex.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins's parent-child genetic asymmetry (importance 3): Parent-child share 50% genes. Child values sibling at 50%, but parent values each child equally at 100% (to parent).. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 8).
• Dawkins's evolutionary arms race (importance 3): Predator-prey, parasite-host, male-female, parent-child coevolve in escalating cycles like arms races.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 4).
• Dawkins's immortal coils metaphor (importance 3): DNA as potentially immortal helical coils that wind through geological time via temporary bodies.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• individual selection (organism-level) (importance 3): Selection on phenotypic traits of organisms. The traditional Darwinian view. Dawkins argues gene-level is more fundamental.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• gene pool (importance 3): All genes in a breeding population. Evolution is change in gene pool composition over time.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• evolutionary stability (importance 3): A strategy is stable if it resists invasion by alternative strategies. Central concept from Maynard Smith.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• adaptation (evolutionary) (importance 3): Traits that enhance survival and reproduction in specific environments. Built by cumulative selection.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• survival of the fittest (reinterpreted) (importance 3): Spencer's phrase, commonly misunderstood. Dawkins: fitness = gene survival, not organism strength.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• genetic crossing-over (recombination) (importance 2): Chromosomes exchange segments during meiosis, shuffling gene combinations. Breaks up gene linkage.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Dawkins's 'domestic bliss' strategy (importance 2): Males who invest in offspring care can be favored if female choice rewards it. Monogamy as one ESS outcome.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins's spite in evolution (importance 2): Harming others at cost to self. Can evolve if harmed individuals are less related than population average.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• Dawkins's river metaphor (importance 2): Genetic information flows through time like a river, splitting and merging. Bodies are temporary eddies.. Source: (from training memory of book — developed further in later work).
• sucker's payoff in game theory (importance 2): Worst outcome in Prisoner's Dilemma — cooperate while opponent defects. Drives evolution of retaliation.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 12).
• Dawkins's Retaliator strategy (importance 2): Acts like Dove unless provoked, then fights like Hawk. Can be an ESS, combining niceness with punishment.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Dawkins's 'life-dinner principle' (importance 2): Rabbit runs faster than fox because rabbit is running for its life; fox only for its dinner. Asymmetric stakes drive asymmetric effort.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 4).
• Dawkins's cheater detection (importance 2): For reciprocal altruism to work, organisms must detect and punish cheaters who take benefits without reciprocating.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 10).
• evolutionary time scales (importance 2): Gene evolution occurs over thousands of generations. Cultural (meme) evolution can happen in single generation.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins's meme pool (importance 2): The set of all memes in circulation. Analogous to gene pool for cultural evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• imitation as meme transmission (importance 2): Memes spread through imitation, the cultural equivalent of genetic inheritance.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• phenotype (gene expression) (importance 2): Observable characteristics of organism — morphology, behavior, physiology. Product of gene-environment interaction.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• sexual reproduction paradox (importance 2): Sex halves gene transmission per offspring (only 50% from each parent). Cost of sex is major puzzle.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• parasites as selection pressure (importance 2): Parasites coevolve with hosts in arms races. Hamilton later argued parasites drive sex evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3, updated in later editions).
• aging from gene's perspective (importance 2): Genes for later-life fitness are weakly selected. Senescence evolves because selection weakens with age.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• social insect sterile workers (importance 2): Worker bees/ants don't reproduce. Classic puzzle for individual selection; solved by kin selection.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• social insect colony as superorganism (importance 2): Ant/bee colonies function like single organisms. Workers are somatic cells; queen is germ-line.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• blending inheritance fallacy (importance 1): Discredited 19th-century idea that offspring inherit blended traits from parents. Would eliminate variation.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).

Claims

• Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines (importance 5): The fundamental shift in evolutionary perspective — organisms exist to preserve and propagate genes, not vice versa. Genes are the replicators; bodies are their vehicles.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2 'The Replicators').
• Dawkins's 'selfish gene' metaphor (importance 5): Genes act as if selfish — they promote their own replication even when this appears altruistic at the organism level. The gene is the unit of selfishness.. Source: (from training memory of book — title thesis).
• Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins (importance 5): Altruism evolves when helping relatives who share copies of the same genes. rB > C where r = relatedness, B = benefit, C = cost.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6 'Genesmanship').
• Dawkins's gene as unit of selection (importance 5): The gene, not the organism or group, is the fundamental unit that natural selection acts upon. Genes compete for representation in the gene pool.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Trivers's parent-offspring conflict via Dawkins (importance 4): Parents and offspring have different optimal strategies because they share only 50% of genes. Offspring value themselves more than parents value them.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 8 'Battle of the Generations').
• Dawkins's copying errors as variation source (importance 4): Imperfect replication creates variety among replicators. Natural selection acts on this variety to favor more successful variants.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins's gene immortality thesis (importance 4): Individual organisms die but genes are potentially immortal, passed down through generations. Genes outlive bodies by millions of years.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3 'Immortal Coils').
• Dawkins's rejection of group selection (importance 4): Selection acts primarily on genes and individuals, not groups. Group-benefit explanations for altruism are generally wrong.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1, Ch. 7).
• Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins (importance 4): Altruism toward non-relatives can evolve if there's repeated interaction and cheaters are punished. 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.'. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 10 'You Scratch My Back').
• Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes (importance 4): Memes compete for brain-space and propagate through imitation. Cultural evolution follows Darwinian logic but much faster than genetic evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins on altruism paradox (importance 4): Self-sacrifice seems to contradict survival of the fittest — until you shift focus from organism to gene. Kin selection resolves the paradox.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• Dawkins's survival machines thesis (importance 4): Organisms are 'survival machines' — robots built by genes to preserve and propagate those genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins's gene-level vs. group-level selection (importance 4): Where gene-level and group-level selection conflict, gene-level wins. Groups are too temporary; genes endure.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 7).
• Dawkins's central theorem restatement (importance 4): A gene's success is measured by its frequency in the gene pool. Period. This explains all evolutionary phenomena.. Source: (from training memory of book — multiple chapters).
• Fisher's 1:1 sex ratio via Dawkins (importance 3): Equal investment in male and female offspring is an ESS. If one sex is rarer, genes for producing that sex have advantage.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Dawkins's genome as parliament (importance 3): The genome is a cooperative of genes, like a parliament of representatives, each pursuing its own survival.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Dawkins on human free will vs. genes (importance 3): Humans can rebel against the tyranny of selfish replicators through foresight and cultural transmission. We alone can defy our genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins's 'genetic determinism' clarification (importance 3): Genetic influence ≠ genetic determinism. Genes influence behavior but don't dictate it. Environment and learning matter enormously.. Source: (from training memory of book — various prefaces).
• Dawkins's battle of the sexes (importance 3): Males and females have conflicting genetic interests. Males benefit from promiscuity; females often benefit from selectivity.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins on female mate choice (importance 3): Females evolve to be choosy because eggs are expensive. Female preference drives male trait evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins's genetic book-keeping argument (importance 3): Natural selection is differential survival of genes. All other units (cells, organisms, groups) are temporary; only genes persist.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Dawkins's 'nice guys finish first' (later) (importance 3): In iterated games, cooperative strategies like Tit for Tat outcompete always-defect. Niceness can be stable.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 12).
• Dawkins's Hawk-Dove game (importance 3): Contest strategy game: Hawks always fight, Doves retreat. Pure Hawk or pure Dove populations are unstable; mixed ESS emerges.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Dawkins on organisms as optimization (importance 3): Natural selection optimizes gene survival, not organism happiness or species survival. This explains apparent cruelty.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• Dawkins on evolution's purposelessness (importance 3): Evolution has no foresight, no goal. Complexity arises from blind selection over millions of generations.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• Dawkins's gene atomism (importance 3): Genes are particulate, not blending. Mendelian inheritance preserves distinct variants. Essential for Darwinian selection.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Dawkins on male mating strategies (importance 2): Males can pursue 'he-man' strategy (compete for females) or 'sneaky' strategy (look like females, sneak copulations).. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins on male cuckoldry risk (importance 2): Males face risk of raising offspring that aren't genetically theirs. This asymmetry drives sexual jealousy evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 9).
• Dawkins on weaning conflict (importance 2): Offspring wants to nurse longer than parent wants to provide. Parent values future offspring equally; current offspring values self more.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 8).
• Dawkins on offspring deception (importance 2): Offspring selected to exaggerate need to extract more resources. Parents selected to detect deception.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 8).
• Dawkins on forgiveness in evolution (importance 2): Strategies that forgive occasional defection outcompete grudgers in noisy environments. Prevents endless retaliation spirals.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 12).
• Dawkins on kin recognition mechanisms (importance 2): Organisms evolve proxies to recognize kin: familiarity from early life, nest location, phenotype matching.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• Dawkins on alarm calls evolution (importance 2): Birds give alarm calls despite attracting predator attention. Explained by kin selection — caller's relatives benefit.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• Dawkins's Grudger strategy (importance 2): Cooperates until defected against, then never cooperates with that individual again. Can invade population of Suckers.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 10).
• Dawkins on celibacy as anti-gene meme (importance 2): Religious celibacy directly opposes genetic replication yet spreads memetically. Proves memes can override genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins on language as meme complex (importance 2): Languages are co-adapted meme complexes that replicate through cultural transmission across generations.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins on consciousness as emergent (importance 2): Human consciousness and foresight emerge from brain complexity. Allow us to simulate futures and rebel against genes.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 11).
• Dawkins on complexity as non-miraculous (importance 2): Biological complexity appears designed but arises through cumulative selection without designer. Time + variation + selection = complexity.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 2).
• Dawkins on sex's long-term advantage (importance 2): Sexual recombination generates variation faster than mutation alone. Helps species adapt to changing environments and parasites.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Weismann's germ-line barrier (importance 2): Acquired characteristics don't pass to offspring. Only germ-line mutations propagate. Refutes Lamarckism.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Dawkins on haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera (importance 2): Female hymenoptera share 75% genes with sisters, only 50% with offspring. Favors worker sterility.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).

Empirical results

• Hamilton's rule: rB > C (importance 4): Altruistic behavior spreads when the coefficient of relatedness times the benefit to recipient exceeds the cost to actor.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6). Quote: "rB > C".

Methods

• Axelrod's Tit for Tat strategy (importance 3): Cooperate on first move, then copy opponent's previous move. Simple, nice, retaliatory, forgiving. Won Axelrod's tournament.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 12, though Axelrod's work came after 1976).

Entities

• W.D. Hamilton (importance 4): Evolutionary biologist whose kin selection theory (1964) is central to Dawkins's argument.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 6).
• R.A. Fisher (importance 3): Population geneticist whose sex ratio argument Dawkins uses as early ESS example.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Robert Trivers (importance 3): Evolutionary biologist who developed reciprocal altruism and parent-offspring conflict theories used by Dawkins.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 8, Ch. 10).
• John Maynard Smith (importance 3): Evolutionary biologist who developed ESS concept. Applied game theory to evolution.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 5).
• Charles Darwin (importance 3): Founder of evolutionary theory. Dawkins reinterprets Darwinian evolution from gene's perspective.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 1).
• chromosome (replicator bundle) (importance 2): Bundles of genes that replicate together. Genes on same chromosome travel as a unit through meiosis.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• V.C. Wynne-Edwards (importance 2): Biologist who proposed group selection theory for population regulation. Dawkins critiques this view.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 7).
• allele (gene variant) (importance 2): Alternative form of a gene at same chromosomal location. Alleles compete for representation in gene pool.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• Gregor Mendel (importance 2): Discovered particulate inheritance through pea experiments. Foundation for gene concept.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• genetic locus (importance 1): Position on chromosome where a gene sits. Alleles occupy same locus.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• genotype (genetic makeup) (importance 1): The genetic constitution of an organism. Contrast with phenotype.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).
• August Weismann (importance 1): Biologist who established germ-line theory. Refuted Lamarckian inheritance.. Source: (from training memory of book — Ch. 3).

Relations

• Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines requires Dawkins's replicator
• Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines requires Dawkins's vehicle
• Dawkins's replicator requires Dawkins's three replicator properties
• Dawkins's 'selfish gene' metaphor supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's gene as unit of selection supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins evidences Dawkins's 'selfish gene' metaphor
• Hamilton's rule: rB > C evidences Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins's coefficient of relatedness (r) enables Hamilton's rule: rB > C
• W.D. Hamilton cites Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins on altruism paradox motivates Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins supports Dawkins on altruism paradox
• Robert Trivers cites Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• Robert Trivers cites Trivers's parent-offspring conflict via Dawkins
• Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) enables Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• John Maynard Smith cites Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
• game theory in evolution enables Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
• Axelrod's Tit for Tat strategy exemplifies Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• iterated Prisoner's Dilemma enables Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• Trivers's parent-offspring conflict via Dawkins requires Dawkins's parent-child genetic asymmetry
• Dawkins on weaning conflict exemplifies Trivers's parent-offspring conflict via Dawkins
• Dawkins on offspring deception exemplifies Trivers's parent-offspring conflict via Dawkins
• Dawkins's battle of the sexes supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Trivers's parental investment enables Dawkins's battle of the sexes
• Dawkins on male mating strategies exemplifies Dawkins's battle of the sexes
• Dawkins on female mate choice exemplifies Dawkins's battle of the sexes
• Dawkins on male cuckoldry risk supports Dawkins's battle of the sexes
• Dawkins's meme generalizes Dawkins's replicator
• Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes enables Dawkins's meme
• Dawkins's 'God meme' exemplifies Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes
• Dawkins on celibacy as anti-gene meme exemplifies Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes
• Dawkins on human free will vs. genes enables Dawkins's meme
• Dawkins on consciousness as emergent supports Dawkins on human free will vs. genes
• Dawkins's primordial soup precedes Dawkins's replicator
• Dawkins's copying errors as variation source enables Dawkins's replicator
• Dawkins's gene immortality thesis supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's immortal coils metaphor exemplifies Dawkins's gene immortality thesis
• chromosome (replicator bundle) enables Dawkins's gene immortality thesis
• Dawkins's gene complex supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's genome as parliament exemplifies Dawkins's gene complex
• Dawkins's rejection of group selection supports Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• V.C. Wynne-Edwards contradicts Dawkins's rejection of group selection
• Dawkins's gene-level vs. group-level selection supports Dawkins's rejection of group selection
• Fisher's 1:1 sex ratio via Dawkins exemplifies Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
• R.A. Fisher cites Fisher's 1:1 sex ratio via Dawkins
• genetic crossing-over (recombination) enables chromosome (replicator bundle)
• Dawkins's 'green beard' effect exemplifies Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Hamilton's inclusive fitness enables Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins's 'nice guys finish first' (later) supports Axelrod's Tit for Tat strategy
• Dawkins on forgiveness in evolution supports Dawkins's 'nice guys finish first' (later)
• sucker's payoff in game theory exemplifies iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
• Dawkins's Hawk-Dove game exemplifies Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
• Dawkins's Retaliator strategy exemplifies Dawkins's Hawk-Dove game
• Dawkins on kin recognition mechanisms enables Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins's 'life-dinner principle' exemplifies Dawkins's evolutionary arms race
• Dawkins's evolutionary arms race supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins on alarm calls evolution evidences Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins's cheater detection enables Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• Dawkins's Grudger strategy exemplifies Trivers's reciprocal altruism via Dawkins
• evolutionary time scales enables Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes
• Dawkins's meme pool enables Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes
• Dawkins on language as meme complex exemplifies Dawkins's cultural evolution via memes
• imitation as meme transmission enables Dawkins's meme
• phenotype (gene expression) enables Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• genotype (genetic makeup) precedes phenotype (gene expression)
• Dawkins on organisms as optimization supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Charles Darwin cites natural selection (Darwin)
• natural selection (Darwin) enables Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• Dawkins on evolution's purposelessness supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• adaptation (evolutionary) enables natural selection (Darwin)
• Dawkins on complexity as non-miraculous supports Dawkins on evolution's purposelessness
• sexual reproduction paradox requires Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins on sex's long-term advantage supports sexual reproduction paradox
• parasites as selection pressure motivates Dawkins on sex's long-term advantage
• aging from gene's perspective supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's gene atomism enables Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• blending inheritance fallacy contradicts Dawkins's gene atomism
• Gregor Mendel cites Dawkins's gene atomism
• Weismann's germ-line barrier supports Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• August Weismann cites Weismann's germ-line barrier
• social insect sterile workers motivates Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• Dawkins on haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera evidences social insect sterile workers
• social insect colony as superorganism supports Dawkins on haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera
• Dawkins's central theorem restatement supports Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• survival of the fittest (reinterpreted) supports Dawkins's central theorem restatement
• Dawkins's survival machines thesis exemplifies Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's extended phenotype (preview) generalizes Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• Dawkins's 'genetic determinism' clarification supports Dawkins's gene's-eye view: bodies as survival machines
• allele (gene variant) enables gene pool
• genetic locus enables allele (gene variant)
• Dawkins's genetic book-keeping argument supports Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• evolutionary stability enables Dawkins's Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
• Dawkins's spite in evolution exemplifies Hamilton's kin selection via Dawkins
• individual selection (organism-level) contradicts Dawkins's gene as unit of selection
• Dawkins's 'domestic bliss' strategy exemplifies Dawkins's battle of the sexes
• Dawkins's river metaphor exemplifies Dawkins's gene immortality thesis

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