In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, British ethologist Richard Dawkins makes innumerable contributions not only to genetics but to evolutionary theory and even Universal Darwinism as a whole. He states early onin this work that “Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ is really a special case of a more general law of ‘survival of the stable.’ The universe is populated by stable things.”Dawkins thus proposes, quite directly, that Darwinian natural selection is at work not only in biology but among all stablephenomena.[1]
Dawkins then delves almost immediately into physics and chemistry, maintaining that life has evolved from atoms to manentirely via selection.[2]Dawkins holds that in chemistry, for example, the first stable “replicators” gave rise to life as we know it. He states,“Whether we call the first replicators living or not, they were the ancestors of life; they were our founding fathers.”[3]
This book is most well-known, however, for having defined gene selection. In short, genes are “selfish,” because they seek to perpetuate themselves just like we do. Dawkins thus extended selection, showing it to act upon genes as the most fundamental units of life itself.[4] In doing so, he showed how entire hereditary sequences are created and honed via selection. He thus revealed how selection can both sort and arrange molecules, which is of course another remarkable contribution to Universal Darwinism.
Correspondingly, Dawkins also gave us meme selection. Just as genes are the most fundamental units in biology, memes—or ideas—are the fundamental units in cultural evolution. Meme selection is central, as it helps us better understand the true origins behind cultures and their innumerable productions.[5]
This is of particular importance to Universal Darwinism, as some scientists in the field believe that the term “universal selection” is necessary to encompass all of the many forms of selection still being discovered in biology and anthropology.[6] This includes everything from gene selection and meme selection to deme selection, phyla selection, and many more. What’s missing here, then, is that the term universal selection is necessary to explain all of the many forms of selection still being discovered—even outside of life.
Although it was some seven years after the publication ofThe Selfish Gene, Dawkins also coined the term “Universal Darwinism” (1983). Heargued that natural selection is likely to always be present on other habitable worlds. Dawkinsclaimed that, via survival of the fittest organic molecules and their descendants, life should be prevalent throughout all of nature. In short, because selection is such an inescapable mechanism, life too should be universal throughoutourcosmos.[7]
It should thus be evident that The Selfish Gene presents itself as an enormous contribution to evolutionary theory and to Universal Darwinism at large. Although Dawkins was the first to bring attention to these remarkable principles, many others have of course contributed to the field in the decades since.[8,9]In his book The Origin of Phenomena, for example, naturalistD. B. Kelley, has pieced together what is arguably the most complete and comprehensive exploration of this growing field. He has also defined many new forms of selection, including particle selection, atom selection, and many more.[10]As the very father of Universal Darwinism, however, Dawkins’ work will always stand out among the rest, as his pioneering contributions are both important and many.
~David Goldberg
References
[1] Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Ch. 2, p. 13, Oxford University Press, 1976.
[2] Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Ch. 2, p. 14, Oxford University Press, 1976.
[3] Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Ch. 2, p. 20, Oxford University Press, 1976.
[4] Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Ch. 1, p. 12, Oxford University Press, 1976.
[5] Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Ch. 11, p. 206, Oxford University Press, 1976.
[6] Cziko, Gary (1995), Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution, From Providence through Instruction to Selection, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[7] Dawkins, Richard (1983) Universal Darwinism. In: Evolution from molecules to man, ed. D. S. Bendall. Cambridge University Press.
[8] Campbell, John, Universal Darwinism: the path of knowledge, CreateSpace.
[9] Plotkin, Henry (2010), Evolutionary Worlds Without End, Harvard University Press.
[10] Kelley, D. B., (2013), The Origin of Phenomena, Ch. 11, p. 99, Woodhollow Press.
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