Home > Richard Dawkins
__NOTOC__Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS (born March 26, 1941), better known as Richard Dawkins, is a British zoologist, born in Nairobi, in Kenya. He is currently Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, and is one of the most prominent biologists alive.
He is probably best known for his popularisation of the concept of the selfish gene (see " Williams Revolution"), described in his book The Selfish Gene. As an ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he popularised the idea that the gene is the principal unit of selection in evolution. This gene point of view also provides a basis for understanding kin selectionKin selection was first suggested by Darwin as an explanation of the sterile castes of social insects and has later been mathematically defined by W. Hamilton as a mechanism for the evolution of apparently altruistic acts. Kin altruism is the technical te which was originally suggested by J. B. S. HaldaneJohn Burdon Sanderson Haldane ( November 5, 1892 December 1, 1964) was a geneticist born in Scotland and educated at Eton and Oxford University. He was one of the founders (along with Fisher and Wright) of population genetics. His famous book, The Causes and expanded by W. D. HamiltonThis article is about the British biologist Bill Hamilton. Other persons have been named Bill Hamilton Professor William Donald "Bill" Hamilton F. August 1, 1936 March 7, 2000) was a British biologist who published research in the fields of zoology and ge.
Dawkins has been one of the major proponents of sociobiological theorySociobiology is a branch of biology that attempts to throw light upon animal behavior and social structures in terms of evolutionary advantage or strategy. It uses techniques from ethology, evolution and population genetics. The term "sociobiology" was co and coined the term memesmiley is an example of a visual meme. Once seen, you are likely to copy it, reproduce it and show it to others. A meme (rhymes with "dream", but comes from memetic and memory) is a unit of information that replicates from brains or retention systems, suc, which spawned the theory of memeticsMemetics is the scientific approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme . Richard Dawkins (1989) once coined a basic unit of human evolution, the meme. Dawkins continued Charles Darwin's genetic evolution to the. In the controversy over the interpretation of the theory of evolution that is colloquially called the Darwin Wars, one faction is often named for Dawkins and its rival for Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould ( September 10, 1941 May 20, 2002) was a New York-born American paleontologist, an evolutionary biologist and historian of science. He was the most influential and widely-read writer of research-based popular science of his generation.. This reflects the pre-eminence of each as popularisers of the contesting viewpoints, rather than because either is the more substantial or extreme champion of these positions. Dawkins acquiesced in this role from the time of his scathing review (published in January 19851985 is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January events January 1 Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System. January 17 British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. January 23 A debate in the House of Lor) of Not in Our Genes! by Rose, Kamin and Lewontin.
He is an ardent and outspoken atheist, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and vice-president of the British Humanist Association. He also writes for the Council for Secular Humanism's magazine Free Inquiry and serves as a Senior Editor. In his essay " Viruses of the Mind", he uses memetics theory to explain the phenomenon of religious belief and the various characteristics of organised religions, such as the punishments awaiting non-believers.
Dawkins is a prominent figure in contemporary public debate on issues related to science and religion. He topped Prospect Magazine's 2004 list of the top 100 public British intellectuals, as decided by the readers, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up. [1]
On the advice of his late colleague Stephen Jay Gould, Dawkins refuses to participate in debates with creationists on the basis that they will just use their proximity to a real scientist to gain legitimacy in the public eye.
