Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Student’s Last Name 1
Illustrate the Importance of Selfish Genes
In his book called Origin of Species, Charles Darwin states that evolution came as a result
of natural selection that guaranteed the survival of the fittest organisms (1995). According to
this statement, the entire world has to be a very ruthless place, since every organism is trying to
survive being in constant competition with each other for food, sexual partners and territory. It
concerns people as well, because we are the last and the most developed segment of the
evolutional trail (in terms of our intellectual development), but we are still animals in terms of
our physical bodies. However, both in the world of animals and the world of people, we observe
altruistic actions. If Darwin’s theory is true, it is not clear why we or animals can be self-
sacrificing. Even the most cold-blooded predators are kind to their children. Even the worst
criminal normally loves his parents and children. In the world of people, a person can risk
his/her life for a total stranger. The theory of selfish genes gives a good explanation to such
phenomena. “The gene is the unit of heredity. The entire collection of genes possessed by an
organism is called the genome (The Selfish Gene?).” In their study report, Gregory D. D. Hurst
and John H.Werren (2001) explain the role of selfish genes in the evolution of eukaryotic
organisms. Also, John H. Werren (2011) presents his study of selfish genetic elements and their
role in evolution. However, what are selfish genes?
The Selfish Gene Theory
The theory of selfish genes was created by the most eminent evolutionary thinker of this
day and age named Richard Dawkins (Beautiful Minds, 2012). In 1976, Dawkins wrote a book
called The Selfish Gene, which made him a name in science. The central idea of his theory is
that the evolution went through the survival of the genes, not the bodies of organisms. As stated
Student’s Last Name 2
by Dawkins in his book, natural selection works on the gene level, so-called selfish genes of an
organism replicate and survive in its offspring and then in the offspring of the offspring, thus
genes are immortal, while bodies are mortal, genes only use organisms’ physical bodies to
survive; he says that the fittest genes, not organisms, survive in the process of natural selection
(Dawkins, 2006). The evolutionary scientist believes that our bodies are only machines that
help genes to move from one generation to another (Beautiful Minds, 2012). Genes are really
“selfish”, since they force an organism to reproduce in order to preserve themselves. Altruism,
always seen as a far and even opposite notion from the idea of survival of the fittest, now came
hand in hand with the selfish genes and the survival of the fittest organisms. “It often turns out
on closer inspection that acts of apparent altruism are really selfishness in disguise (Dawkins,
2006, 4).”
Examples of Altruism Enforced by the Selfishness of Genes
There are many examples of altruism that confirm the theory of selfish genes (“Selfish
Gene” Theory 2009), e.g. animals die for their children (protecting them or feeding them), which
are acts of pure altruism, completely self-sacrificing and go against the instinct of survival,
because they really “want” to preserve their genes in their offspring. These altruistic acts are
egoistic in their core, for the reason that they help organisms to pass on their genes to the next
generations; organisms die, but their genes live on in their children. Once again Dawkins’ theory
of selfish genes is confirmed in the aforementioned altruistic acts, because genes make
organisms to sacrifice themselves for their children to guarantee their transmission to future
generations, and so they are the selfish survivors. Consequently, the importance of selfish genes
is obvious in such satiations. “During the Second World War there were Dutch and German
Aryans who, at enormous risk to themselves, did their best to protect Jews—acting on no other
Student’s Last Name 3
motive, it would appear, than pure altruism (Furbank, 2008)”. It was because they saw them as
other members of mankind who shared common genes with them. Other examples of altruistic
acts enforced by the selfishness of genes are the following: a bird protects its nest from a
predator risking its life; a bee stinging honey thieves gives its own life, since vital organs are torn
our together with a sting and a bee dies as a result of such an altruistic act, but the population of
bees is preserved; or “young men are expected to die as individuals for the greater glory of their
country as a whole. Moreover, they are encouraged to kill other individuals about whom nothing
is known except that they belong to a different nation (Dawkins, 2006, 4).” In these examples, all
organisms that risk or sacrifice their lives try to preserve the genes of their children, their
population or their nation, because they belong to the same gene pool. Such examples of
altruism are in point of fact selfish attempts to preserve their genes or the genes that define their
species. “Any gene that behaves in such a way as to increase its own survival chances in the gene
pool at the expense of its alleles will, by definition, tautologously, tend to survive. The gene is
the basic unit of selfishness (Haselhurst & Howie)”. The theory of selfish genes successfully
explains the social behavior of animals (Rhoads, 2009).
The Theory Criticized
In his lecture on Dawkins’ book, Ian Johnston criticizes Dawkins’ antireligious ideas
where there is no place for moral principles put into words by God, and he says: “I’m tempted to
read his new concept as a ME-ME (1997)”. “Meme” can be understood as “the cultural
equivalent of a gene (Rhoads, 2009)”. According to Richard Dawkins, human beings are only
containers for the so-called selfish genes and there is no other purpose of their existence.
Student’s Last Name 4
Accordingly, Dawkins’ theory played a significant role in understanding many aspects,
such as the nature of evolutionary process, the role of religion in society, the role of physical
bodies in evolution and the basic unit of evolution (The Selfish Gene, 2012).
Dawkins’ Theory Misunderstood
In the 1980’s, the world of capitalism became captivated by the book The Selfish Gene
(Dawkins, 2006). The reason for their keen interest in the book was simple: people liked the
idea of egoism and that the book justified their self-centered society and greedy and selfish ways
of life. However, it was not the idea that Dawkins put in his theory of selfish gene. He simply
wanted people to look at the evolutionary process from a completely new perspective. It was
only a beautiful metaphor to call genes selfish (Rhoads, 2009), but people liked the word selfish
and did not realized Dawkins’ real ideas behind the words.
Although he [Dawkins] says that “genes have no foresight” and “they do not plan ahead”
Dawkins imbues genes with a consciousness and a “selfish” identity. They strive to replicate
themselves, as if they are consciously planning how best this could be achieved (The Selfish
Gene?).” When Dawkins wrote the book The Selfish Gene in the 1970s, there were no clear
understanding of what genes were made of and what they were exactly, but Dawkins ignored
those uncertainties and expanded his mind to the unbelievable width. He explained how genes
survived and how they controlled their “survival machines”, which he called bodies of animals
and humans (Radford, 2012). The thing is that people’s and animals’ lives are short, but their
genes live millions of years due to the fact that they are selfish and strive to be transmitted from
generation to generation (Radford, 2012).
Student’s Last Name 5
How to oppose the Selfishness of Genes
In the end of his book, Dawkins wrote a very optimistic phrase, which sheds a light on
the future of every single individual of human society, which cannot be used by animals, because
they have no such a brain which people have:
We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the
selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately
cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism— something that has no
place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of
the world. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we
have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against
the tyranny of the selfish replicators (2006, 200-201).
In the above-mentioned citation, Dawkins means that people have their free will and the
ability to think in order to decide which pattern of behavior to choose. Unlike animals, our
altruism can be enforced not only by our selfish genes that guarantee the survival of our lives,
families and races, but it can be empowered by our minds that can guarantee the survival of
moral values and philosophies of the entire world.
Student’s Last Name 6
References
Hurst, Gregory D. D. & Werren, John H., August, 2001. The role of selfish genetic elements in
eukaryotic evolution. Nature Reviews 2:597-606. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/labs/WerrenLab/My%20Papers/2001_Hurst&Werren.p
df> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Werren, John H., April 13, 2011. Selfish genetic elements, genetic conflict, and evolutionary
innovation. [Online] Available at: <http://www.pnas.org/content/108/suppl.2/10863.full.pdf>
[Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Dawkins, Richard, 2006. The Selfish Gene. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.
Radford, Tim, 31 August 2012. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins – book review. [Online]
Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/31/the-selfish-gene-richard-
dawkins-review> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
The Selfish Gene? [Online] Available at: <http://www.marxist.com/science-
old/selfishgene.html> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Rhoads, Dan, 11 February, 2009. Selfish Genes and Gene-Centered Evolution. [Online]
Available at: <http://bitesizebio.com/articles/selfish-genes-and-gene-centered-evolution/>
[Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
The Selfish Gene. (Updated 25 Feb. 2012) [Online] Available at:
<http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web2/mhope.html > [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Johnston, Ian, 27 March, 1997. Lecture on Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. (Updated Jan. 2005.)
[Online] Available at: < http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/dawkins.htm > [Accessed 20
Sep. 2012].
Student’s Last Name 7
Haselhurst, Geoff & Howie, Karene. Richard Dawkins: Discussion of Quotes by Evolutionary
Scientist Richard Dawkins. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.spaceandmotion.com/evolutionist-richard-dawkins.htm> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Selfish Gene Theory, 2002. [Online] Available at:
<http://bovination.com/cbs/selfishGeneTheory.php > [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Furbank, P. N., 2008. Altruism, Selfishness, and Genes. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/furbank_su08.html> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Beautiful Minds: Professor Richard Dawkins, 2012. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kVaM8SJlSg> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
Darwin, Charles, 1995. The Origin of Species. Gramercy Books: New York.
“Selfish Gene” Theory, The, 17 August 2009. [Online] Available at:
<http://harunyahya.com/en/works/16631/selfish-gene-theory-the> [Accessed 20 Sep. 2012].
