Brief Candle in the Dark

August 3, 2015
Following the first volume of his memoirs, An Appetite for Wonder, Dawkins reminisces about his life from the 1976 publication of his bestselling The Selfish Gene to the present. The text is fascinating, thoroughly readable, and joyful even as it is wildly eclectic and rambling. Dawkins describes the book as “a series of flashbacks divided into themes, with digressive anecdotes.” Whether he is relating his experiences popularizing science or summarizing his travels to the Galápagos Islands, Dawkins tells a good tale as he expounds upon the value in broadly promoting science literacy. In his last full chapter, which takes up a full third of the book, he revisits the scientific ideas for which he is best known in professional, if not popular, circles. Not surprisingly, Dawkins lives up to his reputation as one who attacks his opponents mercilessly, whether the attacks are warranted or not. He once again targets the Templeton Foundation, with its mission to reconcile science and religion, and dismisses the burgeoning field of epigenetics as a “fad, enjoying its 15 minutes of pop science voguery.” Despite these flaws, Dawkins offers great insight into the nature of science and introduces readers to many of the major players responsible for creating the field of evolutionary biology.

June 15, 2015
The second volume of the acclaimed evolutionary biologist's autobiography. Dawkins (An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, 2013, etc.) begins this installment with the bewildering experience of attending a celebration of his 70th birthday when he still felt, at least spiritually, like a 25-year-old. At the close of the first volume, he had just published his groundbreaking book The Selfish Gene (1976). His metaphorical personification of the gene as the agent of natural selection raised a furor at the time and is still controversial. As Dawkins is at pains to explain, he intended to compare economic-utility functions that maximize profitability with the successful reproduction of genes over generations. Despite widespread misunderstanding, his intention was not to suggest that they replace the function of individual, decision-making organisms but rather to apply the method of cost-benefit analysis used in economics to the process of natural selection. The author also explicitly distances himself from genetic determinists who attempt to explain human behavior mechanistically-e.g., attributing a specific behavior to a genetic predisposition, as might be the case with a putative aggressive gene. Dawkins refers readers to his 2004 book The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, in which he discussed his recent views about higher-level genetic cooperation. The Selfish Gene and his spirited defense of atheism, The God Delusion (2006), are his most controversial works, and many readers will welcome his belated attempts to heed criticisms of his unnecessarily abrasive style when debating religious opponents. However, Dawkins justifiably boasts about his publishing success: "through nearly 40 years, not one of my twelve books has ever been allowed to go out of print in English." Though the narrative could have used some pruning, the author provides an entertaining portrait of his life and times, including the quaint customs still in practice at Oxford. An impressive overview of Dawkins' life's work, written with the freshness of youthful vigor.

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April 1, 2015
After his "New York Times" best-selling memoir, "An Appetite for Wonder", which explained his exciting dive into science and the thinking behind his groundbreaking "The Selfish Gene", multi-award-winning scientist Dawkins gets in some all-in-fun digs at academia, publishing, and television. Then he explains how his attention was drawn to the intersection of science, culture, and religion--leading eventually to his even bigger groundbreaker, "The God Delusion", which made him a marquee name. His special concerns: the beauties of the natural world, the absurdity of human interactions, and the quickly burning brevity of life.

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