The Good Of The Individual

One thing I like to highlight about my Pre-AP English class is how we read absolutely everything. From old texts like Gilgamesh for example to satires like Candide and now we read a science book, The Selfish Gene. It is very interesting to see differences between every kind of book and author. The Selfish Gene is a science book about evolution, it is very serious and we actually learn a whole lot form it. As I read through chapters 1 and 2, I found myself back in my 9th grade Combined Science class with Ms. Elise. I remember studying the natural selection about giraffes and they refer to it in the book, “Humans and baboons have evolved by natural selection.” (Page 4) Science is a class that I really like probably because of curiosity to know how things work.

The author, Richard Dawkins says that, “They made the erroneous assumption that the important thing in evolution is the good of the species (or the group) rather than the good of the individual (or the gene).” (Page2) What I remembered from both my English and Science class I had learned something different. I remember reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as he said that evolution brings forth what works. This is what I knew was right since I had read about it and studied it. It made sense and it will be interesting to know Dawkins’ point of view about this with his book.

The author says, “Our genes may instruct us to me selfish, but we are not necessarily compelled to obey them all our lives.” (Page 3) At the beginning I thought The Selfish Gene was a weird name for a science book but now I understand. What he means is that our genes are selfish into looking for the good of the individual and not of the whole species as most of us think it is. I hope the author clarifies his points more as we progress through the book.