selfish gene | Inspiring Science

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altruism, biology, emergence, emergent properties, Gene, Gene-centered view of evolution, Group selection, macroevolution, Popular science, Richard Dawkins, science, selfish gene, Stephen Jay Gould

I briefly mentioned “gene centred views of evolution” in the final paragraph of my previous post in this series about natural selection. In this post, I’d like to expand a bit on the “selfish gene”, which has proven to be quite a powerful idea, and to present my thoughts on why it nevertheless provides an incomplete view of evolution. I know this can be a controversial subject, so feel free to chime in and start a discussion in the comments.

Earlier posts in this series: Modes of selection, Sexual selection, On fitness.

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biology, Darwinism, Education, evolution, fitness, natural selection, Popular science, replicator, science, selfish gene, tautology

For the third part in my series about natural selection I’d like to address the concept of fitness. Thanks to the phrase “survival of the fittest”, fitness is quite a prominent idea in the popular perception of evolution. It was originally coined by Herbert Spencer after he read On the Origin of Species; Darwin adopted the phrase in later editions and it’s been popular ever since. Unfortunately, this glib phrase has often eclipsed a more accurate depiction of evolution, leading to some common misunderstandings. This confusion arises because “fitness” has a different meaning in evolutionary biology than it does in general usage. (Have a look at the earlier posts in this series if you haven’t already read them; the first was about the different modes of natural selection and the second discussed selection mechanisms, focusing on sexual selection in particular.)

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