![]() ![]() Dawkins shows how this logic can be exploited at the micro-level of ‘replicators’, or genes. The logic is that used by Darwin when he explained the existence in nature of design without a designer as an effect of selection. Of course, genes are not literally agents, let alone selfish ones intent on propagating themselves, but analysing what they would do if they were provides us with a uniquely cogent account of their actual effects on the world. Fragments of molecules, on the other hand, are unfamiliar objects to which we are not disposed to attribute interests and goals. ![]() We spontaneously interpret the behaviour of individuals as that of agents capable of pursuing their interest, and extend this kind of interpretation to social groups. His picture challenges common-sense ontology and expectations, and is indeed astonishing. What Dawkins did was integrate such findings into a vivid and systematic picture of biological evolution wholly “from the point of view of the gene” and explore the wider implications of this approach. ![]()
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