He is a treasured author of CITIC Publishing.
In almost all the "must-read lists" you can see, it can be said that his masterpiece is a classic masterpiece that can truly break the barriers of knowledge and bring equal shock to everyone regardless of age and experience.
Published 48 years ago, it has been a global bestseller, and in its nearly half-century history, few books have had a depth and breadth of influence.
In 2017, the Royal Society launched a poll on the most influential scientific books of all time, and the answer has hardly changed in nearly 100 years, whether it is Darwin's "Origin of Species" or Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy".
But this book, with 18% of the total votes, won the "Most Influential Science Book in History", it is - "The Selfish Gene".
"The Selfish Gene"
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The author, Richard Dawkins, is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, a professor at the University of Oxford, a famous evolutionary biologist, animal behaviorist and popular science writer, and is regarded as a national treasure of the United Kingdom.
In addition to serious titles, there are many interesting entrances to know him, and here is one - he can be said to be the "quarrel king" among the living scientists on the planet today, and he has almost never lost a quarrel in his life.
Even at the age of 83, Dawkins is still scrappy and his love for truth, clarity of thought and the beauty of science has not changed.
"I am disgusted by non-mainstream science, superstitions, etc., because they weaken the educational base and deprive young people of the opportunity to form a scientific worldview...... It hurts to see children's minds drawn into dark corners by medieval superstitions. ”
Richard Dawkins
Whenever he has the opportunity, he will debate all kinds of pseudo-science and superstitions, and sometimes he even attacks those religions and believers with all his firepower, even if he eats melons online, people will be shocked. He believes that the truth can only be understood and strengthened naturally by being more and more clear.
Dawkinson receives numerous brutal personal attacks every day for this, and he simply invites a cellist to accompany him, reads these hateful statements aloud to sweet melodies, and makes a comedy movie for release on the Internet.
Looking back on the words and actions that have attracted criticism for himself, the media asked him if he wants to retract it, and Dawkins said, "I will not take any ideas back, I stick to the core ideas of 'Selfish Genes,' and maybe more firmly in some ways." ”
This is Richard Dawkins, some say he is like a fighting dog, but the combat value is still a little lower, and finally changed to "Darwin's Ronawe Dog".
As the largest Chinese publisher of Richard Dawkins' Chinese works, CITIC Publishing Group has published seven of Dawkins' works, but Dawkins's "genetics trilogy" has so far published only two types: "The Selfish Gene" and "The Blind Watchmaker".
Today, Ashin is dedicated to you to complete the last book in the "Genetics Trilogy", the sequel to "The Selfish Gene" - "Extended Phenotype", as well as the sequel to "The Blind Watchmaker", and "Climbing the Impossible Mountain", which is regarded as a must-read by Darwinian researchers and biologists in China.
Both books have been translated into Chinese for the first time.
Extended Phenotype
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Climbing the Impossible Mountain
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Richard Dawkins's ideas are cutting-edge and profound, but the writing is very popular, and the famous computer scientist Daniel Healy has a cool comment: "My only complaint about Dawkins is that he explains his thoughts too clearly!" ”
The 2 new books by Richard Dawkins recommended for you today can hardly be called "new works", after all, they have been published for many years, but they are definitely classics.
From the hundreds of thousands of Chinese readers who have been deeply affected, Ashin feels that this sentence very powerfully sums up the power of thought that Dawkins can benefit you for life - openness of heart and clarity of mind.
Dawkins, the history of an "atheist knight".
道金斯的全名是克林顿·理查德·道金斯（Clinton Richard Dawkins），首字母碰巧与他心目中的科学英雄达尔文（Charles Robert Darwin）相同。
Dawkins's relatives are well known: his maternal grandmother came from a family of doctors, and his maternal grandfather was an engineer at the Marconi Company and was the president of the Marconi Academy; There were many naturalists in my grandmother's family, including one who was Wittgenstein's assistant; My grandfather was a forest ranger in Burma from the colonial establishment.
Dawkins' father was sent to Malawi, Africa, in 1939 as an agricultural officer, and Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1941.
In 1959, Dawkins was admitted to Belliol College, Oxford, the alma mater of his grandfather, father and two uncles, and notable alumni include Adam Smith, Toynbee and Huxley. He originally applied for biochemistry, but was transferred to zoology.
He felt at home at Oxford's "mentorship" that encouraged thematic independent inquiry, and his mentor Cain was specially placed to develop his potential in the history and philosophy of biology.
In 1962, Dawkins became a graduate student of Nobel laureate Tinbergen, and for a time he was obsessed with computer programming, developing a practical software that could time animal behavior and an interesting program that simulated the chirping of crickets.
Nicholas Tinbergen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973
But in 1973, when the miners' strike triggered a government power cut, the "electronic cricket" project was affected, and he began writing a book on the occasion of the power outage, which began "The Selfish Gene".
In 1979, he took another sabbatical sabbatical to write The Extended Phenotype, published in 1982, and has been Dawkins' favorite book ever since.
Extended Phenotype
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In his book, he shows three forms of "phenotypic expansion" in nature: the use of abiotic tools by organisms, the parasitism of organisms within organisms, and the remote control between organisms in vitro. In the "Glossary" at the end of the book, he also proposes a concept of "teleology" that justifies the teleological name of gene-centrism:
Teleology: The Science of Adaptation. In fact, teleology is teleology that Darwin has made respectable, but generations of biologists have been schooled to avoid "teleology" as if it were an incorrect construct in Latin grammar...... This book is a teleological treatise.
The "extended phenotype" is the second half of the idea of the "selfish gene", and together they form a complete gene-centric perspective, and for the first time completely restores the bizarre phenotypic world to a simple masterpiece of "biological forces" (replication mechanisms) that are "only a little more than physical forces".
Dawkins spent 20 years as a lecturer before being promoted to associate professor in 1990. During this period, in addition to "The Selfish Gene" and "The Extended Phenotype", he published in 1986 a book "The Blind Watchmaker" that used evolutionary theory to counter creationism.
The Blind Watchmaker
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The "clockmaker" is taken from the well-known natural theological metaphor: the design argument concludes that "the designer of the natural order exists" from the premise that "complex structures require special design", thereby believing that "God is the clockmaker of nature".
In this book, Dawkins argues that the mechanical movement of the physical world, coupled with the directed accumulation of random variation by natural selection, is enough to create all kinds of structural miracles and even support the entire biological world.
In 1991, he was invited to the stage of the Royal Academy of Sciences' "Christmas Lectures", founded by Faraday that year, to teach science to children.
The five lectures were recorded by the BBC as the television programme Growing Up in the Universe, the third of which was later expanded into his 1996 monograph of the same name, and the rest of the lectures were included in the 1998 book Analyzing the Rainbow.
Climbing the Impossible Mountain
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"Climbing the Impossible Mountain" is a model of popular science and theoretical innovation.
Combined with his 1989 paper "The Evolution of Evolvability", the book explores the evolutionary potential or evolutionary path of "mutating" new traits by replicating and reorganizing existing trait modules, and turning "constraints" into "progress".
In the 21st century, with the rise of the "new atheism" cultural craze, Dawkins, along with Dennett, Higgins, and Harris, was enshrined as the "Four Horsemen of New Atheism".
The Four Horsemen of Atheism,
From left: American journalist Christopher Higgins, American philosopher Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, and American writer and doctor of neuroscience Sam Harris
Dawkins was convinced that his atheism was true, and the controversy it caused never ceased.
During a visit to New Zealand in February 2023, Dawkins criticized the local government's practice of packaging Aboriginal traditional knowledge as science for teaching.
As soon as this statement was made, local scholars accused him of colonialism and racism.
Dawkins responded: "Real 'science' stands up to scrutiny and peer review. Laboratories around the world can do experiments to find out the real evidence for every science. Scientific beliefs are supported by experiments, while myths are built on the basis of tradition and cannot be compared. "
Is the theory of evolution still worth reading today?
From Yan Fu's translation of "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" to Chinese the first introduction of the theory of evolution to the time it was written into junior high school biology textbooks, Darwin's theory has become a universally recognized truth for more than 100 years.
Now that the theory of evolution is well known, what is so special about Richard Dawkins's popular science that is still worth reading today?
In addition to being able to explain the knowledge of evolution theory thoroughly, what is more remarkable is that he has made original contributions to the theory of evolution, which not only "triggered a silent and rapid revolution" in the field of biology, but also had a profound impact on the field of social sciences and subverted the cognition of countless people.
Dawkins extends Darwin's theory of natural selection from the biological individual to the genetic level, giving us a new view of the world.
He proposed that the outstanding characteristic of genes is their relentless selfishness, which often leads to the selfishness of individual behavior. We are born selfish, and any living being, including ourselves, is just a survival machine. But the human brain has evolved to such an extent that we can betray our own selfish genes.
Richard Dawkins profoundly influenced an era and changed the way countless people looked at life.
Leading investors such as Charlie Munger believe that Dawkins has given a basic explanation of the human condition, from which he understands the way trading has evolved.
Charlie Munger
Famous Austrian mathematicians such as Carl Sigmund and a leading figure in evolutionary game theory did not hesitate to attribute his achievements to reading Dawkins's book.
Outstanding science fiction writers such as Liu Cixin were also deeply influenced by it, saying: "The biggest feature of 'The Selfish Gene' is coldness, coldness that is colder than calmness, and quietly reveals the essence of life......
You may not have read Dawkins yet, but you must have been influenced by him before you knew it. Many of his concepts have long been silently integrated into all aspects of modern life.
Dawkins's self-coined term meme in The Selfish Gene has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary, which means "the basic unit of culture, transmitted through non-genetic means, especially imitation", and has now become a common term in the English-language Internet world: "meme" and "meme".
A meme diagram
He wrote in The Blind Watchmaker: "No matter how many ways of life there are, there are more ways to find death." Included in the Oxford Dictionary of English Quotations.
He also influenced modern people's views on love and mate selection, some people say that when a newlyweds get married, they should put their hands on "The Selfish Gene" and swear: I will go against my nature, disobey my instincts, and love you forever......
To read the theory of evolution is to read the human race itself. Where have we come from, where are we going, what is the meaning of life, and how should we know ourselves? To this day, we can still look to his books to find the answers.
Copyrighted Author
Who is Dawkins' favorite "child"?
Dawkins has published more than a dozen popular science books, all of which have received universal acclaim, and every reader may have their own preferences, with some believing that "The Selfish Gene" is a timeless classic, while others finding "The Blind Watchmaker" more lively and interesting.
Dawkins also has his own preference, which is "Extended Phenotype".
He boastfully said, "If you've never read my other works, don't worry, at least read this one." ”
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If "The Selfish Gene" was written for the purpose of popularizing evolutionary theory, then "Extended Phenotype" is a concentrated display of Dawkins's original work as an evolutionary biologist.
In the first sentence of the opening sentence, Dawkins said: "This book can be described as an undisguised 'defense' work. But what he wants to defend is not a new theory, nor a scientific hypothesis, but a way of thinking.
The famous philosopher Daniel Dennett commented that the book has "the most exquisite and enduring rigorous chain of argumentation" that he has seen in his life, and there is no lack of a large number of ingenious and vivid thought experiments, and even makes "substantial contributions to the progress of some philosophical debates".
He used an original theory to interpret genes: the phenotype of a gene is no longer just a visible feature of the body in which the gene resides, but can extend to a wider environment, even to the characteristics of other organisms.
This theory has been described by Dawkins as an "extended phenotype" and has proven to be a very influential approach to genetic interpretation, providing a unique perspective on our understanding of evolution and the natural world.
If "Extended Phenotype" will also involve deeper and more difficult biological knowledge, "Climbing the Impossible Mountain" is more beginner-friendly, and it is an entry-level evolutionary science popularization that everyone can watch.
Climbing the Impossible Mountain, a sequel to The Blind Watchmaker, aims to answer the question "How do seemingly carefully engineered biological features and organ functions evolve step by step?" This classic conundrum of evolutionary theory.
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Dawkins uses a metaphor that runs throughout the book: the impossible mountain. Its height represents a combination of the two natures of "perfect" and "impossible".
It's impossible to climb to the vantage point of evolution in one leap, but if you go to the other side of the mountain, you'll see a gentle slope that winds (i.e., a slow, cumulative non-random persistence of random variation). As long as you have enough time, you can climb this gentle slope to the top.
Creationism's assault on evolutionary theory has never stopped, and Dawkins eloquently argues in this book how natural selection works the miracle of life.
In Climbing the Impossible Mountain, Dawkins uses approachable language, detailed case studies, and computer simulations to dissect the laws and characteristics of biological evolution.
He believes that organisms have a certain trait by chance due to genetic mutations, but in the process of evolution, due to artificial selection or natural selection, the genetic trait has been continuously optimized through accumulation to form its current form.
The so-called impossibility of the evolution of life can actually be realized through a gradual evolutionary process.
This is true of creation, and so it is of life. We can't afford to spend billions of years like nature, but we can change ourselves far more than random mutations in our genes. Time can turn dinosaurs into birds, and we can also turn ourselves into better versions of ourselves.
The sun arches and dies, and the merit is not donated.