The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution

Product Description

‘Arvid Ågren has undertaken the most meticulously thorough reading of the relevant literature that I have ever encountered, deploying an intelligent understanding to pull it into a coherent story. As if that wasn’t enough, he gets it right.’ (Richard Dawkins)

To many evolutionary biologists, the central challenge of their discipline is to explain adaptation, the appearance of design in the living world. With the theory of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin elegantly showed how a purely mechanistic process can achieve this striking feature of
nature. Since then, the way many biologists have thought about evolution and natural selection is as a theory about individual organisms. Over a century later, a subtle but radical shift in perspective emerged with the gene’s-eye view of evolution in which natural selection was conceptualized as a
struggle between genes for replication and transmission to the next generation. This viewpoint culminated with the publication of
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press, 1976) and is now commonly referred to as selfish gene thinking.

The gene’s-eye view has subsequently played a central role in evolutionary biology, although it continues to attract controversy. The central aim of this accessible book is to show how the gene’s-eye view differs from the traditional organismal account of evolution, trace its historical origins,
clarify typical misunderstandings and, by using examples from contemporary experimental work, show why so many evolutionary biologists still consider it an indispensable heuristic. The book concludes by discussing how selfish gene thinking fits into ongoing debates in evolutionary biology, and what
they tell us about the future of the gene’s-eye view of evolution.

The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution is suitable for graduate-level students taking courses in evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, and evolutionary genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplinary audience from the social sciences
and humanities including philosophers and historians of science.

Review

“Science needs ingenious points-of-view that help us understand the world. Few perspectives are more famous DS or notorious DS than that of the selfish gene. Merging biology and history of science, Ågren unravels its origins, explains why it is useful, and when its utility has been overstretched.
Whether you’re a fan or a critic, this is an essential guide to the gene’s eye view.” — Tobias Uller, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden

“Arvid Ågren has undertaken the most meticulously thorough reading of the relevant literature that I have ever encountered, deploying an intelligent understanding to pull it into a coherent story. As if that wasn’t enough, he gets it right.” — Richard Dawkins

“Since its inception in the 1970s, the “gene’s eye view of evolution” has been a controversial idea in evolutionary biology. In this lucid and scholarly book, Arvid Ågren provides a masterful treatment of the intricate and often confusing debates over the value and limitations of the gene’s eye
view. I highly recommend his book to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of this important issue.” — Samir Okasha, Professor of Philosophy of Science, University of Bristol, UK

“The idea of the selfish gene revolutionised evolutionary thinking and led to many new insights. But from the outset it received strong criticism, not all of it baseless. In the first dedicated book on the idea since it was proposed, Arvid Ågren expertly explores the power and nuances of the selfish
gene concept. At times taking sides, at others leaving history to decide, he is always perceptive, scholarly, balanced and good natured. Interwoven with asides on the principal players, this fine book succeeds in being both enlightening and engaging.” — Andrew Bourke, Professor of Evolution