The Extended Phenotype; The Gene as the Unit of Selection

Dawkins, Richard

ISBN 10: 0716713586 / ISBN 13: 9780716713586

Published by W. H. Freeman and Company, Oxford and San Francisco

About this Item

[0-7167-1358-6] 1982, 1st edition, 1st printing. (hardcover) Near fine. viii, 307pp. 8vo. Dawkins considers this to be the sequel to 'The Selfish Gene' (1976). Bright green cloth, silver titles to front and spine. No jacket, but wrapped in loose, protective mylar. Minimal foxing to top fore-edge. Does not show internally. Smallest amount of bumping on corners. Truly a beautiful copy.

Seller Inventory # 130046

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Extended Phenotype; The Gene as the Unit of Selection
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman and Company, Oxford and San Francisco
• ISBN 10: 0716713586
• ISBN 13: 9780716713586
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Sciences

About this title

Synopsis

By suggesting that individual organisms should be viewed as a single coherent unit, working to maximize their own reproductive success, the author explains that as these organisms are "selfish" they have the capacity to effect the body of another animal, so revolutionizing our views of adaptation. Dawkins shows that some such revolution is logically necessary, as genes can be said to have extended phenotypes outside the body in which they sit. Other topics that the book examines include the theory of evolutionary stable strategies, the relationship between Darwinian and Lamarckian theories of general adaptation and the suggestion, first made in "The Selfish Gene", Dawkin's controversial first book, and also recently reopened by molecular biologists under the catchphrase "Selfish DNA", that some of the surplus DNA in eukaryotic genomes may be parasitic. In the final chapter the author returns to the individual organism as a phenomenon that needs explaining in its own right. Dawkin has also written "The Blind Watchmaker".

About the Author

About the Author Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of New College and Lecturer in Animal Behavior at Oxford University. He is the author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker.