Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think

This sparkling collection explores the impact of Richard Dawkins as scientist, rationalist, and one of the most important thinkers alive today. Specially commissioned pieces by leading figures in science, philosophy, literature, and the media, such as Daniel C. Dennett, Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, Philip Pullman, and the Bishop of Oxford, highlight the breadth and range of Dawkins’ influence on modern science and culture, from the gene’s eye view of evolution to his energetic engagement in public debates on science, rationalism, and religion. The volume includes personal reminiscences and critical debate as well as accessible discussions of science – it provides a stimulating tribute to a remarkable intellectual.

Table of Contents Preface; BIOLOGY; Ballooning Parrots and Semi-Lunar Germs; The Battle of the Sexes Revisited; Richard Dawkins: Intellectual Plumber-and More; What is a Puma?; THE SELFISH GENE; Living with The Selfish Gene; The Gene Meme; The Intellectual Contribution of The Selfish Gene to Evolutionary Theory; An Eye on the Core: Dawkins and Sociobiology; LOGIC; The Selfish Gene as a Philosophical Essay; The Invention of an Algorithmic Biology; Selfish Genes and Information Flow; Deep Commonalities between Life and Mind; ANTIPHONAL VOICES; Richard Dawkins and the Problem of Progress; The Nest’s Tale: Affectionate Disagreements with Richard Dawkins; What’s the Matter with Memes?; HUMANS; Selfish Genes and Family Relations; Why a Lot of People with Selfish Genes Are Pretty Nice Except for their Hatred of The Selfish Gene; The Perverse Primate; CONTROVERSY; The Skeptic’s Chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a Fountainhead of Skepticism; A Fellow Humanist; Dawkins and the Virus of Faith; The Politics and Ethics of Richard Dawkins; What the Whale Wondered: Evolution, Existentialism, and the Search for ‘meaning’; WRITING; Richard Dawkins and the Golden Pen; Every Indication of Inadvertent Solicitude; Index

Author Biography

Alan Grafen is Professor of Theoretical Biology in the Department of Zoology at Oxford. He is co-author of Modern Statistics for the Life Sciences (OUP, 2002) and numerous scientific papers. Dr Mark Ridley lectures at the Department of Zoology at Oxford, and is best known as the author of a number of books, including Evolution (Blackwell, 2e, 2003), Evolution: A
Reader (OUP, 2e, 2003) and the critically acclaimed Mendel’s Demon (Wiedenfeld, 2000).

Alan Grafen and Mark Ridley are both distinguished former students of Richard Dawkins.