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I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."
Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
We animals are the most complicated things in the known universe. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
good addition to The Selfish Gene,
By
This review is from: Blind Watchmaker (Paperback)
Published ten years after The Selfish Gene, this book is just as enlightening and entertaining as that first book by Dawkins. More examples of evolution in the natural world, and more evidence that evolution has indeed shaped the diversity of living things, past and present, on the earth. Very well written, it's a pleasure to read. One criticism of this and especially The Selfish Gene: Dawkins seems to think that there's no or very little selection at the level of the group, and that natural selection takes place at the level of the individual or even his or her DNA. However, I think it's clear that there is a good deal of selective pressure at the level of the group or tribe, and even to some degree at the level of the entire species. If a group of animals dies, that includes every member of the group, so it stands to reason that there should be some selection at the level of the group, even if that selection runs counter to the immediate goals of the individual within that group. In spite of this criticism, any curious person should give this, and The Selfish Gene, a read. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
General in Content,
By Christopher Boyce (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (Paperback)
This is a good book for the general public, but for those with a four year degree in Biology or who are well read in the life sciences, it is not particularily stimulating. It does well covering the basics of biological evolution, and it affectively addresses the conventional creationist arguments, but I don't think this book demonstrates in the end what it seeks to establish. I strongly recommend another book by Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene", a book which presents a very useful paradigm for viewing the biological world.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine,
This review is from: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (Paperback)
>His key experiment is a highly dubious experiment using a computer program to produce objects with different morphologies. The problem is that the program doesn't really prove anything. It does not ATTEMPT to "prove" anything. It attempts to ILLUSTRATE something, and it illustrates it well. (Though perhaps Dawkins is a bit too enamored of his own program.) >Perhaps if he spent less energy and rhetoric railing against punctuated equilibrium. Dawkins is hyper-critical of any evolutionary theory that doesn't follow strict gradualistic Darwinian evolution. Once you have made up you mind that you have the 'one true answer' you stop questioning. If you cannot question objectively you cannot do good research. Nonsense. Dawkins is almost always questioning here. He is not at all doctrinaire or preachy. If anything, he is too glib. He doesn't "rail" against "punctuated equilibrium", he refutes it calmly, succinctly, and convincingly. Don't get the idea I agree with all of Dawkins opinions. (He clearly differentiates opinion and fact, by the way. There is no problem there.) I don't subscribe to the notion that theism and evolution are necessarily irreconcilable, and I don't believe that theism is at root the reason a large contingent remains unable at this late date to accept evolution despite the overwhelming body of scientific evidence amassed in its favor since Darwin's time. I think those who reject evolution suffer from some sort of existential vertigo and are clinging to religion merely to cloak that existential vertigo.
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