Everything about The Extended Phenotype totally explained
The Extended Phenotype (subtitled "The Gene as the Unit of Selection", and later, "The Long Reach of the Gene") is a
1982 book by
Richard Dawkins. A revised edition was published in 1999 with an afterword by the philosopher
Daniel Dennett. Dawkins considers the concept of the
Extended Phenotype to be his principal contribution to
evolutionary theory.
Dawkins starts from the ideas of his 1976 book
The Selfish Gene, which portrayed the
organism as a survival machine constructed by its
genes to maximise their chances of replicating. In a much more technical presentation than the earlier book, Dawkins devotes a significant portion of this work to an attempt to rebut criticism of
The Selfish Gene.
Genes synthesize only proteins
In the main portion of the book, Dawkins argues that the only thing that genes control directly is the synthesis of
proteins. He points to the arbitrariness of restricting the idea of the
phenotype to apply only to the phenotypic expression of an organism's genes in its own body.
Genes affect the organism’s environment
Dawkins develops this idea by pointing to the effect that a gene may have on an organism's environment through that organism's behaviour, citing as examples
caddis houses and
beaver dams. He then goes further to point to first animal
morphology and ultimately animal behaviour, which appears advantageous not to the animal itself, but rather to a
parasite which afflicts it. Dawkins summarizes these ideas in what he terms the
Central Theorem of the Extended Phenotype:
Gene centred view of life
In conducting this argument, Dawkins aims to strengthen the case for a
gene-centric view of life, to the point where it's recognised that the organism itself needs to be explained. This is the challenge which he takes up in the final chapter entitled "Rediscovering the Organism."
Further Information
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