The Extended Phenotype

By Richard Dawkins,

Book cover of The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene

Book description

In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins crystallized the gene's eye view of evolution developed by W.D. Hamilton and others. The book provoked widespread and heated debate. Written in part as a response, The Extended Phenotype gave a deeper clarification of the central concept of the gene as the unit of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Extended Phenotype as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

When I read Richard Dawkins’s The Extended Phenotype I knew I wanted to become an evolutionary biologist. The book is the most ambitious articulation of the gene’s-eye view (a work of ‘unabashed advocacy’, as Dawkins put it). Less famous that The Selfish Gene, it also includes responses to the criticisms that The Selfish Gene received, which also made debates in theoretical biology seem so exciting. In many ways, that excitement has never left me. 

From J.'s list on selfish genes.

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