- #1
mishrashubham
- 599
- 1
Please explain this paragraph from "The Selfish Gene"
edit: I just noticed that I misspelled 'Selfish' in the title. However I have no idea how to edit the title after posting so kindly ignore the mistake.
I have been reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins and all the while he looks like a desperate man trying to get his point across Sometimes it becomes very annoying. (No offense to Mr Dawkins or his fans). Somethings are way confusing for me. I don't know but may be it is because of the education system where evolution and natural selection is always taught species central, that I am finding this gene central idea hard to grasp. Nevertheless I still am not able to understand this paragraph in his third chapter "Immortal Coils" on page 34 (at least in my copy of the book, the page number might differ depending on the edition).
Here it goes
What I don't understand is why does something need to be stable in order for it to undergo evolution. Isn't natural selection the survival of the most stable as Mr Dawkins himself puts it?
Also why is he so bent upon trying to prove that genes are the unit of natural selection? I mean DNA is just the code and a body is its execution. How does it matter whether it is the organism or the gene, aren't both the same thing?
And what does he mean by this statement? " You cannot get evolution by selecting between entities when there is only one copy of each entity! Sexual reproduction is not replication."
Please Explain
Thank You
edit: I just noticed that I misspelled 'Selfish' in the title. However I have no idea how to edit the title after posting so kindly ignore the mistake.
I have been reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins and all the while he looks like a desperate man trying to get his point across Sometimes it becomes very annoying. (No offense to Mr Dawkins or his fans). Somethings are way confusing for me. I don't know but may be it is because of the education system where evolution and natural selection is always taught species central, that I am finding this gene central idea hard to grasp. Nevertheless I still am not able to understand this paragraph in his third chapter "Immortal Coils" on page 34 (at least in my copy of the book, the page number might differ depending on the edition).
Here it goes
In sexually reproducing species, the individual is too large and too temporary a genetic unit to qualify as a significant unit of natural selection.* The group of individuals is an even larger unit. Genetically speaking, individuals and groups are like clouds in the sky or dust-storms in the desert. They are temporary aggregations or federations. They are not stable through evolutionary time. Populations may last a long while, but they are constantly blending with other populations and so losing their identity. They are also subject to evolutionary change from within. A population is not a discrete enough entity to be a unit of natural selection, not stable and unitary enough to be 'selected' in preference to another population.
An individual body seems discrete enough while it lasts, but alas, how long is that? Each individual is unique. You cannot get evolution by selecting between entities when there is only one copy of each entity! Sexual reproduction is not replication. Just as a population is contaminated by other populations, so an individual's posterity is contaminated by that of his sexual partner. Your children are only half you, your grandchildren only a quarter you. In a few generations the most you can hope for is a large number of descendants, each of whom bears only a tiny portion of you—a few genes—even if a few do bear your surname as well.
What I don't understand is why does something need to be stable in order for it to undergo evolution. Isn't natural selection the survival of the most stable as Mr Dawkins himself puts it?
Also why is he so bent upon trying to prove that genes are the unit of natural selection? I mean DNA is just the code and a body is its execution. How does it matter whether it is the organism or the gene, aren't both the same thing?
And what does he mean by this statement? " You cannot get evolution by selecting between entities when there is only one copy of each entity! Sexual reproduction is not replication."
Please Explain
Thank You
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