Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene

sep
10
2019

Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene

Cover to cover
Neurobiologist Dr Divya Raj tells how Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene changed our understanding of evolution. Does his theory still hold up today?

“We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”

In his most famous work, The Selfish Gene (1976), Richard Dawkins presented a radically new take on the theory of evolution. He argued that the struggle for survival is not one between members of a species in which the individual with the best adapted genetic profile survives, but a battle between genes. The book made a wider audience familiar with fundamental questions about life on earth. But not everyone bought the argument. Humanists and religious people were deeply troubled by the suggestion that human behavior is driven by selfish genes. Fellow scientists objected that people do many things for which, as far as we know, there is no gene, such as sports and other cultural activities.

Neurobiologist Dr Divya Raj (UU) traces the influence of Dawkins’s theory on science and popular imagination. Does his work still hold up today?

Speaker

Date & time
Tuesday September 10 2019 (20:00-21:30)
Language
English
Entrance
Free
Register
No registration is needed. But seats are limited and first come, first served.
Also see
Add to calendar

About this series

Cover to cover

Als je wilt weten wat er leeft in de maatschappij loont het om de zelfhulpboeken top 10 te bekijken. We nemen drie bestsellers uit de afgelopen decennia kritisch onder de loep. Boeken die een grote invloed hebben op ons zelfbeeld, onze manier van werken en onze ideeën over mannen en vrouwen. Wat leren ze ons over de tijdsgeest?