Dawkins + Darwin = The Selfish Gene

“Finally, in this rather miscellaneous chapter, I shall mention the important idea of reciprocal altruism, the principle of ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’.  (pg.166)  

Dawkins defines reciprocal altruism as the process of analysis that genes go through in order to analyze that they must get more from “an association” than they put in.  He discards the idea of their being teamwork for altruistic reasons in microbiology, and therefore in human behavior.  It feels as though when writing about the pessimistic output of biology, Dawkins puts the exclamation point on the spirit of the book.  He has portrayed evolution and genetics as something that contradicts the optimistic values that most people are raised to believe.  Some might argue that the book has nothing to do with emotions or values, that since Dawkins claims to be simplifying biology, one can’t analyze the book from a social viewpoint.  One of the final sentences in this chapter disproves that theory.  What may be taken as an analogy is in truth an explanation of the theory of reciprocal altruism that he supports.  “Money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism”  (pg. 188) Dawkins theory may be correct in terms of genetics— one gene may result in the formation of blue eyes instead of brown— but the extended analogy that he employs throughout the book suggests a satirical rather than academic tone.  In saying that when a fish swims behind another fish there is a “hydrodynamic advantage from the turbulence by the fish in front.” (pg. 167)  the reader can do nothing but laugh.  What’s next, saying that the reason the world is run by humans is because mocking birds decided to leave it to us?  Promoting the idea that horses don’t kill whoever kicks their side because they want to be respectful? 

The way I see it, Dawkins has taken the idea of simplifying genetics, which by the way he can do*, and turned it into the laughing stock of a tenth grader who hates science.  Moreover, Dawkins has turned Darwin’s theory of evolution, which in the past has been applied to politics and the explanation of the formation of a social structure, into a far-fetched moral explanation for genetic behavior.  Apart from trying to explain genetics and achieving something entirely different in the process, Dawkins has explored the possibility that there is no way that genetic behavior shapes every decision made by the subject.  I would say that the gene has no brain, but that would sound very unsophisticated, so, for the punchline, in the words of the world renowned author:

“The gene has no foresight” (pg.183)

*  “A relationship of mutual benefit between members of different species is called mutualism or symbiosis.” (pg. 181),