Richard Dawkins

Professor Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS (born March 26, 1941), better known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist and popular science writer. He is best known for popularising the Williams Revolution in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. He is also an outspoken atheist.

Biography

Dawkins comes from an upper-middle class family which can be found in the pages of Burke's Landed Gentry as "Dawkins of Over Norton". His father, John Clinton Dawkins, was a descendant of the Clinton family which held the Earldom of Lincoln. His mother was Jean Mary Vyvyan Dawkins (née Ladner). He was born in Nairobi, Kenya, where his father was a soldier.

Dawkins moved to England when he was eight with his father and was educated at Oundle School. He received a second class BA degree in zoology from Balliol College, Oxford in 1962, where he studied under the Dutch ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen. This was followed by an MA and DPhil in 1966.

He married Marian Stamp on August 19, 1967, but they divorced in 1984. On June 1 the same year, Dawkins married Eve Barham, by whom he had a daughter, Juliet, but they, too, divorced. He married his third wife, actress Lalla Ward, in 1992, after having been introduced to her by Douglas Adams (who was a colleague of hers on the production team of Doctor Who; Dawkins and Adams had quickly become friends after he had written a fan letter to Adams).

Meanwhile, he was an assistant professor of zoology at University of California, Berkeley, between 1967 and 1969. He was lecturer in zoology at Oxford University, and fellow of New College, from 1970 to 1990, and later a reader in zoology, until 1995, when he became the first Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.

He is probably best known for his popularisation of the concept of the selfish gene (see "Williams Revolution"), described in his book The Selfish Gene. As an ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he popularised the idea that the gene is the principal unit of selection in evolution. This gene point of view also provides a basis for understanding kin selection which was formulated by his friend Bill Hamilton.

Dawkins has been one of the major proponents of sociobiological theory and coined the term meme, which spawned the theory of memetics. In the controversy over the interpretation of the theory of evolution that is colloquially called the Darwin Wars, one faction is often named for Dawkins and its rival for Stephen Jay Gould. This reflects the pre-eminence of each as popularisers of the contesting viewpoints, rather than because either is the more substantial or extreme champion of these positions. A typical example of Dawkins' position is his scathing review (published in January 1985) of Not in Our Genes by Rose, Kamin and Lewontin. Two others often considered to be in the same camp as Dawkins are Pinker and Dennett.

He is an ardent and outspoken atheist, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and vice-president of the British Humanist Association. He also writes for the Council for Secular Humanism's magazine Free Inquiry and serves as a Senior Editor. In his essay "Viruses of the Mind", he uses memetics theory to explain the phenomenon of religious belief and the various characteristics of organised religions, such as the common belief in punishments awaiting non-believers.

Dawkins is a prominent figure in contemporary public debate on issues related to science and religion. He topped Prospect Magazine's 2004 list of the top 100 public British intellectuals, as decided by the readers, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up.

On the advice of his late colleague Stephen Jay Gould, Dawkins refuses to participate in debates with creationists because doing so would give them the "oxygen of respectability" that they want with the public; Dawkins argued that creationists "don't mind being beaten in an argument. What matters is that we give them recognition by bothering to argue with them in public." (A Devil's Chaplain, p. 256)

The Richard Dawkins Award was created in 2003 in his honour.

Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Bibliography

Books by Dawkins

• Dawkins, R. The Selfish Gene (1976; second edition, 1989) ISBN 0192860925
• Dawkins, R. The Extended Phenotype (1982) Revised edition (1999) ISBN 0192880519
• Dawkins, R. The Blind Watchmaker (1986); reissue pb (1996) ISBN 0393315703
• Dawkins, R. River Out Of Eden (1995) Reprint edition (1996) ISBN 0465069908
• Dawkins, R. Climbing Mount Improbable (1997) ISBN 0393316823
• Dawkins, R. Unweaving the Rainbow (1998) pb (2000) ISBN 0618056734
• Dawkins, R. A Devil's Chaplain (selected essays, 2003) ISBN 0618335404
• Dawkins, R. The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life (2004) ISBN 0618005838

Books about Dawkins

• Sterelny, K., Dawkins vs Gould: Survival of the Fittest (2001) ISBN 1840462493 Debates on evolutionary theory between Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould
• Alister McGrath Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, And The Meaning Of Life (2005) ISBN 1405125381 A critique of Dawkins' crusade against theistic religion

See also Books by and about Richard Dawkins (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Books/index.shtml) and Richard Dawkins Bibliography (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/biblio.shtml), these links are useful but no longer maintained.

Essays by Dawkins

• Viruses of the Mind (1993)
• The real romance in the stars (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1995-12romance_in_stars.htm) - A critical view of astrology (1995)
• Race and creation (http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/09/race_and_creati.php) - On race, its usage and a theory of how it evolved. (exerpted from Prospect (http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6467))
• What Use is Religion? (http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_24_5.htm) - Piece by Dawkins on SecularHumanism.org (http://www.secularhumanism.org/)
• 1999 Snake Oil and Holy Water (http://www.forbes.com/asap/1999/1004/235_print.html)
• 2003 Bin Ladens Victory (http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,919538,00.html) - Guardian editorial about Osama bin Laden
• 2005 The lava lizard' s tale (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1429962,00.html)
• 2005 The turtle's tale (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1425412,00.html)
• 2005 The giant tortoises's tale (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1416876,00.html)

See also Papers and commentary by Richard Dawkins (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/papers.shtml), no longer maintained.

Documentaries

• The God Who Wasn't There
• Double Helix: The DNA Years
• Three Tales
• The Richard Dimbleby Lecture
• Don't Panic
• The Atheism Tapes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/atheism-tapes.shtml)
• Jonathan Miller's Brief history Of Disbelief (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/atheism.shtml)

Multimedia

• Multimedia files featuring Richard Dawkins (http://www.reitstoen.com/dawkins.php)

External links

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• The Current Simonyi Professor: Richard Dawkins (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/index.shtml)
  • Dawkins FAQs (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/FAQs.shtml)
• The World of Richard Dawkins (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/) Extensive website on Dawkins; apart from new calendar items, it is no longer updated.
• Edge.org: Richard Dawkins (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/dawkins.html)
• Double-Dealing in Darwin: Are intellectuals allowing dogma in science but not in religion? by Michael Ruse (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/7/story_762_1.html)
• Dawkins in the news
  • Richard Dawkins: The foibles of faith (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1595744.stm) Dawkins views on the dangers of faith
  • Q&A: Richard Dawkins (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3935757.stm) Dawkins tops poll for Britain's leading 100 public intellectuals.
  • Atheist Dawkins gives Thought for the Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2193321.stm) Dawkins presents religious programme Thought for the Day (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/index.shtml)
  • Dawkins calls for school inspectors to re-examine a UK school over teaching of evolution (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1872331.stm)
  • Nothing wrong with clones says Dawkins (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/265878.stm) Dawkins views on human cloning
  • Slate interview with Dawkins 2004 (http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2110249&)
  • "Revolutionary Evolutionist" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.07/dawkins_pr.html), Michael Schrage, Wired 3.07, July 1995
  • Does Richard Dawkins back astrology? (http://www.rationalistinternational.net/article/20040608_en.html) Dawkin's response to a false claim by Sunday Times.
  • "The Atheist" (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/30/dawkins/index.html), interview with Gordy Slack, Salon.com, April 28, 2005

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