The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins
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(Paperback - Subsequent)
- Pub. Date: December 2004
- 400pp
- Sales Rank: 14,135
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: December 2004
- Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
- Format: Paperback, 400pp
- Sales Rank: 14,135
- ISBN-13: 9780393315707
- ISBN: 0393315703
- Edition Number: 1
- Edition Description: Subsequent
Synopsis
"The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years."--E. O. Wilson. With a new introduction.
Publishers Weekly
Oxford zoologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype trumpets his thesis in his subtitlealmost guarantee enough that his book will stir controversy. Simply put, he has responded head-on to the argument-by-design most notably made by the 18th century theologian William Paley that the universe, like a watch in its complexity, needed, in effect, a watchmaker to design it. Hewing to Darwin's fundamental (his opponents might say fundamentalist) message, Dawkins sums up: ``The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the evolution of organized complexity.'' Avoiding an arrogant tone despite his up-front convictions, he takes pains to explain carefully, from various sides, why even such esteemed scientists as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, with their ``punctuated equilibrium'' thesis, are actually gradualists like Darwin himself in their evolutionary views. Dawkins is difficult reading as he describes his computer models of evolutionary possibilities. But, as he draws on his zoological background, emphasizing recent genetic techniques, he can be as engrossing as he is cogent and convincing. His concept of ``taming chance'' by breaking down the ``very improbable into less improbable small components'' is daring neo-Darwinism. Line drawings. (November 24)
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Richard Dawkins taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University and is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. Among his previous books are The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, and A Devil’s Chaplain. Dawkins lives in Oxford with his wife, the actress and artist Lalla Ward.
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Important, Readable and Comprehensibleby BillRingle
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June 30, 2009: This is an important book to anyone who wants to understand how life works. I found it readable and comprehensible. I picked it up because it is referenced in other books I've read. I placed it on my "100 Book List" My subjective list of the 100 books I think everyone should read in their lifetime.
I Also Recommend: Only a Theory, Breaking the Spell, Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
Blind produces design?by Brenach
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October 18, 2008:
The whole thesis of "The Blind Watchman" is that there is no design in nature.
Yet we see design everywhere. Is it merely an illusion?
The human body is an amazingly designed machine. It is perfectly designed for human life and activities in the environment in which it is surrounded.
There is unity of design, intent and purpose in the whole universe, from quark through cellular structure to the 500 million galaxies.
Richard Dawkins' specialty, cellular biology is one tiny segment of the total universe.
He does not know the origin of the cell. He knows only how it works.
He does not know the origin of matter. He knows only that it is there.
He cannot explain why the universe does not consist of hydrogen and helium.
He cannot explain the emergence of the carbon atom.
He has no exlanation for the hydrosphere and atmosphere of the earth.
The evolution process is not adequately explained by "Natural Selection".
That is like saying that a car runs on gas.
I am not saying that it is not true. I am saying that it does not explain what mechanisms are at work in the process.
Nor does he distinguish between a single cell and multi-celled organisms.
In other words, what are the sufficient causes of the selection, and how clear is it that acquired characteristics are passed on?
If so, describe the mechanism of the transfer.
As for "chance" - "The word "chance" is used for various sorts of happenings that are characterized by our incomplete insight into their causal connections. The lack of insight can be of a fundamental nature, as is the case with the information that is restricted by the lack of definition at the quantum mechanical level, or else it may be due to information that is incomplete or capable of supplement'.
Peter Schuster, cf. ""Darwin und Chemie: Die chemiken Grundlagen der biologischen Evolution", Vienna, Picus Verlag, 2006
and "Ulirich Kkutschera, "Evolutionsbiologie", Stuttgart Verlag, Eugen Ulmer, 2006.
The key to the mysteries of evolutionary biology are "causal connections". For instance, there is no factual evidence of the descent of the human body from the biological descent of any of the higher primates. Similarities, yes, but no evidence of descent. The causal connection is presumed, not demonstrated. What can be demonstrated is a relationship of similarity, not of biological descent.
Richard Dawkins dominates the English-speaking world in his particular fieldl, but he is not the only voice in evolutionary biology. We need a wider net and more detailed and intimate physical, biological, somatic and chemical facts.
cf. August Weismann, "The Evolution Theory", 1905 and his "Studies in the Theory of Descent."
Blind only expresses a lack of detailed information on the causal connections of certain phenomena.
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