Science in the Soul

June 12, 2017
In this assemblage of assorted texts, British evolutionary biologist and polemicist Dawkins (Brief Candle in the Dark) mixes his personal delight that humans have discovered the truth about so much of nature with frustration that the rational search for truth remains a minority approach. Whether he’s administering a respectful rebuke to Prince Charles for a speech full of fashionable antiscience, praising Charles Darwin, or satirizing an article by former prime minister Tony Blair promoting his foundation aimed at encouraging religious faith, Dawkins never conceals his love of good explanations and his contempt for sloppy thinking. Unfortunately, that contempt for sloppy thinking doesn’t extend to the social realm, where Dawkins often comes across as being as confused by politics, culture, and society (for example, his failure to understand why Barack Obama might identify as black) as he is knowledgeable about genetics. Dawkins’s pedantic tone and notable blind spots notwithstanding, his writings on evolution are worth reading and make for a satisfying introduction to one of today’s most prominent scientific thinkers. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman Inc.

June 1, 2017
Combative, contrarian scientist Dawkins (Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science, 2015, etc.) gathers work from across a range of scholarly and secular interests.Is there such a thing as objective truth? If there is, it will come through the vehicle of science, and, the author responds in an Oxford lecture, anyone who argues that we make our own truth is guilty of promulgating "fashionable prattlings." He adds that anti-scientific posturing is the gateway to a new Dark Ages, noting that even if Newtonian physics is only an approximation and Einstein's theory of relativity is subject to revision, that "does not lower them into the same league as medieval witchcraft or tribal superstition." There is a touch of the straw man, and perhaps of the ethnocentric, in the author's ill temper, but he backs his opinions on science and society with hard-edged research while he offers some interesting thought experiments on how science might be applied to life--not just in getting lights to turn on and planes to fly, but in improving the truth of the judicial system by operating jury proceedings as if they were replicable lab tests: "My guess is that if the two-jury experiment were run over by a large number of trials, the frequency with which the two groups would agree on a verdict would run at slightly higher than 50 percent." Dawkins does not disappoint on the religion front, in which he has become known as a leading light of intellectual atheism (or athorism, as he posits in a satirical note on the worship of Norse gods). He lampoons creationism, the 6,000-year-old Earth, and the "time-consuming, wealth-consuming, hostility-provoking, fecundity-forfeiting rituals of religion." Ever the Darwinist, he pauses along the way to ponder what possible adaptive purpose religion can have, questioning whether it might be a species of dominance hierarchy, a holier-than-thou pecking order, among other postulations. For Dawkins fans, a must-have collection of scattered speeches and writings; for foes, more grist for the mill.

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February 1, 2017

Nearly half of the 42 pieces here have never been published in North America, and the rest are not well known, so this collection celebrating rational, scientific thinking will be a treat for Dawkins fans and science readers generally.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2017

These 41 short pieces suitably capture evolutionary biologist Dawkins's (The Selfish Gene; The God Delusion) reputation as a fierce proponent of rationalism, who possesses an exacting and questioning scientific mind and an acerbic wit. Mostly speeches and published letters, these selections are presented with minimal editing: editor's notes introduce each topical section, and contextual footnotes have been added by Dawkins throughout. Readers will find concise arguments of how mutation plus natural selection provides the best explanation for the diversity of life we see today but also the hopeful recognition that human beings have evolved minds capable of long-term planning that may mediate the negative effects of genetic adaptations to an environment now changing much faster than evolutionary timescales. Dawkins's staunch defense of rationalism, especially against the antisocial outcomes he sees arising from religion, comes through in several often sarcastic pieces. But he writes as well of the transcendent awe that science can inspire and gives admiring tributes to mentors who have fostered such insight. VERDICT An excellent option for Dawkins fans and science lovers; those unfamiliar with the author's work may want to seek out his full-length books. [See Prepub Alert, 1/9/17.]--Wade M. Lee, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.