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Book Reviews on...

The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins
Buy now

The Extended Phenotype

by Richard Dawkins

Recommendations from our site

“I chose this because I think it expresses a really important idea. Richard Dawkins wrote this book not long after The Selfish Gene came out. That was his landmark book, in which he argued for a gene-centric view of evolution. Genes build bodies. They build traits, which are known as phenotypes, in order to be replicated in the next generation. In this book Dawkins took this argument to the next level. He said that when we think of the phenotype, we think about fur or eyesight or the red blood cell’s ability to take in oxygen. But genes influence behaviour, and so behaviour is part of the phenotype. And that behaviour allows animals to change their environment in ways that can then raise their reproductive success.” Read more...

The best books on The Strangeness of Life

Carl Zimmer, Journalist

“This is one of my favourite books by Richard Dawkins. I like them all, but this is the one that I think is the most imaginative and compelling. It is slightly more technical than The Selfish Gene, but it shows a highly imaginative approach to understanding the nature of the biosphere. The Extended Phenotype is really an explanation of why an organism should not be seen just in isolation, but rather as part of a wider community of organisms and entities. It is a very clever book.” Read more...

The best books on The Emergence of Understanding

Peter Atkins, Scientist

Other books by Richard Dawkins

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

The Blind Watchmaker
by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins & Yan Wong

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
by Richard Dawkins & Yan Wong

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by Richard Dawkins

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    by George Eliot

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    by George Orwell

  • The Confessions
    by Augustine (translated by Maria Boulding)

  • Plato's Republic

    Republic
    by Plato

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