Hi.

I read The Selfish Gene in 2014, now I'm planning to re-read it together with The Blind Watchmaker and The Extended Phenotype. What would be the best order to read those two books in and what other books of Richard Dawkins would be a good addition to these three, not counting The God Delusion obviously?

9 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Hi.

I read The Selfish Gene in 2014, now I'm planning to re-read it together with The Blind Watchmaker and The Extended Phenotype. What would be the best order to read those two books in and what other books of Richard Dawkins would be a good addition to these three, not counting The God Delusion obviously?

Leave the extended phenotype! Do all the the others if you are interested in Evolutionary biology.

The Selfish Gene is a must first, then watch maker.

River out of Eden, Mount Improbable then my personal favourite, Ancestors Tale.

If you intend to study Biology at University or have already graduated then try "Ancestors."

Edited September 24Sep 24 by pinball1970
Missed a book

Too late to edit! It should have read "Try 'Extended Phenotype.' not "Ancestors."

He wrote Extended Phenotypes for his peers.

Ancestors Tale is at the end of the first list.

Be good to get Charyon view

@CharonY

Edited September 25Sep 25 by pinball1970
Missed word

Have you guys read The God Delusion?

From what I've read about that book, it seems to have been written mostly for the Anglosphere - young Earth creationism (or creationism in general) is a big thing in the US but here in Poland as well as in other majority Catholic, mainline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox countries it barely even exists, the official stance of said churches is theistic evolution which isn't at odds with the theory of evolution.

7 hours ago, Otto Kretschmer said:

Have you guys read The God Delusion?

Yes I have that somewhere. I thought it was a good book because I like his style.

I focused on the Biology books.

20 hours ago, pinball1970 said:

Leave the extended phenotype! Do all the the others if you are interested in Evolutionary biology.

The Selfish Gene is a must first, then watch maker.

River out of Eden, Mount Improbable then my personal favourite, Ancestors Tale.

If you intend to study Biology at University or have already graduated then try "Ancestors."

I think I agree mostly- though I also think that especially if you are student it is relevant to note that while not wrong, the books thematically have a bit of a big narrative issue. They are well written and try to build bigger narratives but they are not that specific as an actual textbook would be. I think they are good to make you curious, less so for learning. But I think it there is also a bit of my anti-big narrative bias showing.

Similarly, while I think that the idea of Ancestor's tale is inspired but there is a bit of a focus on humans and animals, which given the time component is really just a small snippet of our ancestry and feels a bit lopsided. While I do understand of the need to make things relatable to us, I feel it just does not do justice how weird organisms can be. Perhaps similar problematic, focusing on complex animals has given us the idea of a neat evolutionary tree, whereas especially in the microbial world we know that this is probably more of an exception than the rule (I suppose a web made by a drunk spider would come closer). But the the critiques are really just pet peeves and I wouldn't really know how to make things better- if I was writing a book I probably would never even reach vertebrates.

Well, probably I wouldn't even finish the first chapter, considering the heap of papers that I still need to write...

13 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I think I agree mostly- though I also think that especially if you are student it is relevant to note that while not wrong, the books thematically have a bit of a big narrative issue.

I forgot about, "The Greatest Show On Earth." That gives a nice overview for the evidence for Evolution.

The first chapter explains the difference between a theory, scientific theory and mathematical theorem.

As in:

"Evolution is only a theory."

"You can't prove Evolution."

Usually statements from creationists.

Dawkins pet peeve.

I am not a student, university education is long beyond me - I graduated with a master's degree in law in 2019.

I used to be a big science fan at age 13-14 but that interest waned in favor of military stuff, history/alt history and geopoltiics/current events in addition to a multitude of other lesser interests.