On 5/30/07, Walt Byars <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The term selfish gene is just a metaphor for selection at the level of the gene (i.e. genes evolve to better propogate themselves), it doesn't have anything to do with selfishness as an attitude. I don't know what he used
It is not "just a metaphor". That would be trivializing what has turned out to be an extremely powerful idea. Dawkins hides behind this "just a metaphor" excuse in his preface, but is he naive enough to think that all his readers are as nuanced as he is? In reality it fits in too nicely with the neo-classical rhetoric about humans as utility maximizing individuals - he supplies a very nice and plausible-sounding utility function (the survival rate of all your genes!).
to say but a recent book of his says he thinks that altruistic behavior evolved because it is beneficial to the altruistic organism, but it doesn't mean that the organism behaving altruistically has selfish motives in their mind.
This would not make sense unless behavior is genetically determined. -raghu.
