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Evolution is an important guiding principle of biology. From Lamarck to Darwin, from Mendel to modern days, evolutionary biology has developed from early theories to empirical studies and experiments. Evolutionary biology can explain the amazing complexity and diversity of so many different creatures, and it is also closely related to human society in anthropological, historical, ethical, religious, and cultural dimensions. This course will focus on how the theory of evolution has transformed our understanding of society and introduce the basic theories and applications of evolutionary biology.
Originally published in 1976, this book remains a classic work in the development of evolutionary thought, and its influence is undiminished today. Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving center stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. Dawkins argues that individual organisms behave altruistically for the food of the genes, and that such kin altruism is only one way in which gene selfishness can translate itself into individual altruism. Dawkins, in this book, explains how it works, together with reciprocation, Darwinian theory’s other main generator of altruism.
