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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 576.82 EAN: 9780192880512 Edition: Revised ISBN: 0192880519 Label: Oxford University Press, USA Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 336 Publication Date: August 05, 1999 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Studio: Oxford University Press, USA Editorial Review: Product Description: This is a revised edition with a new afterword by Daniel Dennett. The Extended Phenotype carries on from where The Selfish Gene takes off. It is a fascinating look at the evolution of life and natural selection. Dawkins's theory is that individual organisms are replicators that have extended phenotypic effects on society and the world at large, thus our genes have the ability to manipulate other individuals. A worldwide bestseller, this book has become a classic in popular science writing. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Hard core biologyIt's a tough read at times, since it is aimed at Dawkins' colleagues and biology students. But it gives you a sense that the mechanisms of inheritance and natural selection are getting to be very well understood. Oddly, the alleged subject of the book is to be found tucked away in the last chapters, the first 10 or so being Dawkins explaining stuff and telling how others are mistaken. Rating: - Theory, without the distractions.TEP is primarily a technical treatise. It elaborates the implications of holding a Darwinian explanation for the diversity of life forms across and, most especially, through time. In detail, the reader is alerted to what is conceptually required for a Darwinian theory to be internally consistent, and for it then to be applicable to life as it is and as it has been. Professor Dawkins persists in using the misleadingly emotive terminology from his previous best seller, The Selfish Gene. ... Read More Rating:  - A scholastic argumentI read this book because Dawkins in other fora has identified it as his best work. He says it's a version of "The Selfish Gene" for biologists, but as Daniel Dennett points out in the afterword, it is actually an extended philosophical argument. More precisely, it's a scholastic disquisition on why it's only the individual gene that may be denominated as the "unit of selection" for purposes of natural selection as opposed to the organism or some other model. Here's an example of why this is more a ... Read More Rating: - Why the ridiculously small type?I was impressed with Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" and this book is the logical followup. It is more complicated and therefore more difficult to comprehend than the former. So that makes the very small type all the more annoying -- it adds to the difficulty. Seriously, the type size is among the smallest I have seen in any modern mass produced book. Anyone know if any of the earlier editions have larger type? Rating: - Good infoBeware that this book is a lot more technical than the Selfish Gene, although Dawkins writes it in a similar fashion and includes a glossary for the tricky terms. I did find it more repetitive than I was expecting as Dawkins really strives to drive the point home, but as a whole it's still a great book. |
