Clinton Richard Dawkins (born
March 26,
1941) is a
British ethologist,
evolutionary biologist and
popular science writer who holds the
Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the
University of Oxford.
Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book
The Selfish Gene, which popularised the
gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term
meme, helping found the field of
memetics. In 1982, he made a widely-cited contribution to the science of
evolution with the theory, presented in his book
The Extended Phenotype, that
phenotypic effects are not limited to an organism's body but can stretch far into the environment, including into the bodies of other organisms. He has since written several best-selling popular books, and appeared in a number of television and radio programmes, concerning
evolutionary biology,
creationism, and
religion.
Dawkins is an outspoken
antireligionist,
atheist,
secular humanist, and
sceptic, and he's a supporter of the
Brights movement. In a play on
Thomas Huxley's epithet "
Darwin's bulldog", Dawkins' impassioned advocacy of evolution has earned him the appellation "Darwin's rottweiler".
Personal life
Dawkins was born on
March 26,
1941 in
Nairobi,
Kenya, and named Clinton Richard Dawkins. His father, Clinton John Dawkins, was a farmer and former wartime soldier called up from colonial service in
Nyasaland (now
Malawi). Dawkins' parents came from an affluent upper-middle class background – the Dawkins name was described in
Burke's Landed Gentry as "Dawkins of Over Norton". His father is a descendant of the Clinton family which held the
Earldom of Lincoln, and his mother is Jean Mary Vyvyan Dawkins,
née Ladner. Both were interested in the
natural sciences, and answered the young Dawkins' questions in scientific terms.
Dawkins describes his childhood as "a normal Anglican upbringing", but reveals that he began doubting the existence of God when he was about nine years old. He was later reconverted because he was persuaded by the
argument from design, though he began to feel that the customs of the
Church of England were absurd, and had more to do with dictating morals than with God. When he better understood evolution, at age sixteen, his religious position again changed because he felt that evolution could account for the
complexity of life in purely material terms, and thus that a designer wasn't necessary. Dawkins had met her through their mutual friend
Douglas Adams, who worked with Ward on the
BBC TV science-fiction series
Doctor Who. Ward has illustrated over half of Dawkins' books.
Career
Dawkins moved to England with his parents at the age of eight, and attended
Oundle School. He then studied
zoology at
Balliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored by
Nobel Prize-winning
ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen. He gained a second class honours
BA degree in zoology in 1962, followed by
MA and
D.Phil. degrees in 1966, and a
D.Sc. in 1989. He has been a fellow of
New College, Oxford since 1970. He has delivered a number of inaugural and other notable lectures, including the
Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1989), first
Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture (1990),
Michael Faraday Lecture (1991),
T.H. Huxley Memorial Lecture (1992), Irvine Memorial Lecture (1997), Sheldon Doyle Lecture (1999), Tinbergen Lecture (2000), and the
Tanner Lectures (2003). In 1991 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children (recently released on DVD as
Growing Up In The Universe).
In 1996, Charles Simonyi referred to Dawkins as "Darwin's rottweiler", and the
Radio Times. He has also been called "the nearest thing to a professional atheist we've had since
Bertrand Russell" and compared to
Ernst Haeckel.
Dawkins has edited a number of journals and has acted as editorial advisor for several publications, including
Encarta Encyclopedia and the
Encyclopedia of Evolution. He writes a column for the
Council for Secular Humanism's
Free Inquiry magazine and serves as a senior editor. He has also been president of the Biological Sciences section of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, is a Humanist Laureate of the
International Academy of Humanism, a fellow of the
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and serves as advisor for several other organisations. He has sat on numerous judging panels for awards as diverse as the Royal Society's
Faraday Award and the
British Academy Television Awards. In 2004, the
Dawkins Prize – awarded for "outstanding research into the ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare and survival may be endangered by human activities" – was initiated by Oxford's
Balliol College.
Work
Evolutionary biology
In his scientific works, Dawkins is best known for his popularisation of the
gene-centered view of evolution – a view most clearly set out in his books
The Selfish Gene (1976), where he notes that "all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities", and
The Extended Phenotype (1982), in which he describes
natural selection as "the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other". As an
ethologist, interested in animal behaviour and its relation to natural selection, he advocates the idea that the
gene is the principal
unit of selection in
evolution.
Dawkins has been consistently sceptical about non-adaptive processes in evolution and about selection at levels "above" that of the gene. He is particularly sceptical about the practical possibility or importance of group selection.
The gene-centred view also provides a basis for understanding
altruism. Altruism appears at first to be a paradox, as helping others costs precious resources – possibly even one's own health and life – thus reducing one's own fitness. Previously this had been interpreted by many as an aspect of
group selection, that is, individuals were doing what was best for the survival of the population or species. But
W. D. Hamilton used the gene-centred view to explain altruism in terms of
inclusive fitness and
kin selection, that is, individuals behave altruistically towards their close relatives, who share many of their own genes. (Hamilton's work features prominently in Dawkins' books, and the two became friends at Oxford; following Hamilton's death in 2000 Dawkins wrote his obituary and organised a
secular memorial service). Similarly,
Robert Trivers, thinking in terms of the gene-centred model, developed the theory of
reciprocal altruism, where one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation.
Critics of Dawkins' approach suggest that taking the
gene as the unit of
selection — a single event in which an individual either succeeds or fails to reproduce – is misleading, but that the gene could be described as a unit of
evolution – the long-term changes in
allele frequencies in a population. In
The Selfish Gene, however, Dawkins explains that he's using
George C. Williams' definition of gene as "that which segregates and recombines with appreciable frequency". Another common objection is that genes can't survive alone, but must cooperate to build an individual, and therefore can not be an independent "unit". However, in
The Extended Phenotype, Dawkins argues that because of
genetic recombination and
sexual reproduction, from an individual gene's viewpoint, all other genes are part of the environment to which it's adapted. Recombination is a process that occurs during
meiosis in which pairs of
chromosomes cross over to swap segments of
DNA. These sections are the "genes" to which Dawkins and Williams refer.
In a set of controversies over the mechanisms and interpretation of
evolution (the so-called "Darwin Wars"), one faction was often named after Dawkins and its rival after
Stephen Jay Gould, reflecting the pre-eminence of each as a populariser of relevant ideas. In particular, Dawkins and Gould have been prominent commentators in the controversy over
sociobiology and
evolutionary psychology, with Dawkins generally approving and Gould critical. A typical example of Dawkins' position is his scathing review of
Not in Our Genes by
Rose,
Kamin and
Lewontin. Two other thinkers often considered to be in the same camp as Dawkins are
Steven Pinker and
Daniel Dennett, who has promoted a gene-centric view of evolution and defended reductionism in biology. Dawkins and Gould, however didn't have a hostile relationship, and Dawkins dedicated a large portion of his book
A Devil's Chaplain to Gould.
Memetics
Dawkins coined the term
meme (analogous to the gene) to describe how Darwinian principles might be extended to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. This spawned the field of
memetics. While originally floating the idea in
The Selfish Gene, Dawkins has largely left the task of expanding upon it to other authors, such as
Susan Blackmore.
Philosopher Mary Midgley, whom
Dawkins has debated since the late 1970s, criticises memetics, gene selection, and sociobiology as being excessively
reductionist. Among other exchanges, Midgley stated that to debate Dawkins would be as unnecessary as to "
break a butterfly upon a wheel". Dawkins replied that this statement would be "hard to match, in reputable journals, for its patronising condescension toward a fellow academic".
Although Dawkins coined the term independently, he's never claimed that the idea of the
meme was new – there had been similar terms for similar ideas in the past.
John Laurent, in
The Journal of Memetics, has suggested that the term "meme" itself may have been derived from the work of the little-known German biologist
Richard Semon. In 1904, Semon published
Die Mneme (which was published in English, as
The Mneme, in 1924). His book discussed the cultural transmission of experiences, with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent also found the use of the term "mneme" in
The Life of the White Ant (1926), by
Maurice Maeterlinck, and highlighted its similarities to Dawkins' concept.
Creationism
Dawkins is a prominent critic of
creationism, describing it as a "preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood". His book
The Blind Watchmaker contains a critique of the
argument from design, and his other popular science works often touch on the topic. In 1986, Dawkins participated in the
Oxford Union's
Huxley Memorial Debate, in which he and
John Maynard Smith debated
A. E. Wilder-Smith and Edgar Andrews, president of the Biblical Creation Society. But on the advice of his late colleague
Stephen Jay Gould, Dawkins generally refuses to participate in formal debates with creationists because doing so would give them the "oxygen of respectability" that they want. He argues 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."
In a December 2004 interview with
Bill Moyers, Dawkins stated that "among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know." When Moyers later asked, "Is evolution a theory, not a fact?", Dawkins replied, "Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening." Dawkins went on to say, "It is rather like a detective coming on a murder after the scene. And you… the detective hasn't actually seen the murder take place, of course. But what you do see is a massive clue ...Circumstantial evidence, but masses of circumstantial evidence. Huge quantities of circumstantial evidence."
Religion
Dawkins is an ardent and outspoken
atheist, an Honorary Associate of the
National Secular Society, a vice-president of the
British Humanist Association and a Distinguished Supporter of the
Humanist Society of Scotland. In his essay "
Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term "faith-sufferer" originated), he suggested that
memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of organised religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. In 2003, The
Atheist Alliance International instituted the
Richard Dawkins Award in his honour. Dawkins is well known for his contempt for religious extremism, from
Islamist terrorism to
Christian fundamentalism, but he's also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists,.
Dawkins continues to be a prominent figure in contemporary public debate on issues relating to science and religion. He sees education and consciousness-raising as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma. These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he's adopted the positive term "
Bright", as a way of putting positive connotations on those with a naturalistic world view. Dawkins notes that feminists have succeeded in making us feel embarrassed when we routinely employ "he" instead of "she"; similarly, he argues, a phrase such as "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should be seen to be just as improper as, say, "Marxist child". Children shouldn't be classified based on their parent's ideological beliefs.
Following the
September 11, 2001 attacks, when asked how the world might have changed, Dawkins responded:
In January 2006, Dawkins presented a two-part television documentary entitled
The Root of All Evil?, (a title in which Dawkins had no say and with which he's repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction) addressing what he sees as the malignant influence of organised religion in society. Critics said that the programme gave too much time to marginal figures and extremists, and that Dawkins' confrontational style didn't help his cause; Dawkins rejected these claims, citing the number of moderate religious broadcasts in everyday media as providing a suitable balance to the extremists in the programmes. He further remarked that someone who is deemed an "extremist" in a religiously moderate country, may well be considered "mainstream" in a religiously conservative one. The unedited recordings made for the programme, of Dawkins' conversations with Professor McGrath and Bishop Harries, including material unused in the broadcast version, are available online.
Dawkins has ardently opposed teaching
intelligent design in science lessons. He has described intelligent design as "not a scientific argument at all but a religious one" and is a strong critic of the pro-
Creationist organisation
Truth in Science. Dawkins has said the publication of his September 2006 book,
The God Delusion, is "probably the culmination" of his campaign against religion. Dawkins was a featured speaker at the November 2006 conference.
Oxford theologian
Alister McGrath, author of and
The Dawkins Delusion?, has accused Dawkins of being ignorant of
Christian theology. In response, Dawkins stated his position that Christian theology is vacuous, and that the only area of theology which might command his attention would be the arguments to demonstrate
God's existence. Dawkins criticised McGrath for providing no argument to support his beliefs, other than the fact that they can't be
falsified. Dawkins had an extended debate with McGrath at the
Sunday Times Literary Festival in 2007. Another Christian philosopher,
Keith Ward, explores similar themes in his book
Is Religion Dangerous?, arguing against the view of Dawkins and others that religion is socially dangerous. Criticism of
The God Delusion has also come from professional philosophers such as Professor John Cottingham of the University of Reading. Other commentators, including
Margaret Somerville, have suggested that Dawkins "overstates the case against religion", asserting that global conflict would continue without religion from factors such as economic pressures or land disputes. Dawkins' defenders, however, claim that the critics misunderstand Dawkins' point. During a debate on Radio 3 Hong Kong, David Nicholls, president of the
Atheist Foundation of Australia, argued that Dawkins doesn't contend that religion is the source of all that's wrong in the world. Rather, it's an "unnecessary part of what is wrong." Dawkins himself has said that his objection to religion isn't solely that it causes wars and violence, but also because it gives people an excuse to hold beliefs that are not based on evidence.
Dawkins believes that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other." He disagrees with
Stephen Jay Gould's idea of "
non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA) and with similar ideas proposed by
Martin Rees regarding the coexistence of science and religion without conflict, calling the former "positively supine" and "a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp". Regarding Rees's claim in
Our Cosmic Habitat that "Such questions lie beyond science, however: they're the domain of philosophers and theologians," Dawkins replies "What expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?". Rees has suggested that Dawkins' attack on even mainstream religion is unhelpful, and
Robert Winston has said that Dawkins "brings science into disrepute"
Of "good scientists who are sincerely religious", Dawkins names
Arthur Peacocke,
Russell Stannard,
John Polkinghorne, and
Francis Collins, but says "I remain baffled . . . by their belief in the details of the Christian religion". Dawkins writes, "There's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic and a belief that's supported by nothing more than tradition, authority, or revelation."
The Richard Dawkins Foundation
In 2006, Dawkins began a new foundation, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. This is currently in the development phase, but seeks generally to advance the causes of rationalism and humanism.
Other fields
In his role as professor of the public understanding of science, Dawkins has been a harsh critic of
pseudoscience and
alternative medicine. His popular work
Unweaving the Rainbow takes
John Keats' claim – that by explaining the
rainbow Isaac Newton had diminished its beauty – and argues for the opposite conclusion. Deep space, the billions of years of life's evolution, and the microscopic workings of biology and heredity, Dawkins argues, contain more beauty and wonder than myths and pseudoscience. Dawkins wrote a foreword to
John Diamond's posthumously-published
Snake Oil, a book devoted to debunking alternative medicine, in which he asserted that alternative medicine was harmful, if only because it distracted patients away from more successful conventional treatments, and gave people false hopes. Dawkins states, "There is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."
Dawkins has expressed concern over the
exponential growth of human
population and the issue of
overpopulation. In
The Selfish Gene, he briefly introduced the concept of exponential population growth, with the example of
Latin America which, at the time the book was written, had a population that doubled every forty years. He is critical of
Roman Catholic attitudes to
family planning and
population control, stating that leaders who forbid
contraception and "express a preference for 'natural' methods of population limitation" will get just such a method – starvation.
As a supporter of the
Great Ape Project – a movement to extend certain moral and legal
rights to all
great apes – Dawkins contributed an article entitled "Gaps In The Mind" to the
Great Ape Project book edited by Paola Cavalieri and
Peter Singer. In this essay, Dawkins criticises contemporary society's moral attitudes as being based on a "discontinuous, speciesist imperative".
Dawkins also regularly comments in the newspapers and weblogs on contemporary political issues; opinions expressed include opposition to the
2003 invasion of Iraq, the
British nuclear deterrent, and US President
George W. Bush. Several such articles were included in
A Devil's Chaplain, an anthology of articles about science, religion and politics.
Awards and recognition
Dawkins holds
honorary doctorates in science from the
University of Westminster, the
University of Durham and
University of Hull, and an honorary doctorate from the
Open University and from the
Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In 2005, the
Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded him their
Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his "concise and accessible presentation of scientific knowledge". Dawkins was the
Galaxy British Book Awards Author of the Year for 2007; in the same year he was listed in
Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, and was awarded the Deschner Prize, named after
Karlheinz Deschner.
Since 2003, the
Atheist Alliance International has awarded a prize during their annual conferences, honouring an outstanding atheist whose work has done most to raise public awareness of atheism during that year. It is known as the "Richard Dawkins award", in honour of Dawkins' own work.
Publications
Books
Selected essays
Viruses of the Mind (online)
(1993) – Religion as a mental virus.
The Real Romance in the Stars (1995) – A critical view of astrology.
The Emptiness of Theology (1998) – A critical view of theology.
Snake Oil and Holy Water (1999) – Dawkins' argument that there's no convergence occurring between science and theism.
Bin Laden's Victory (2003) – The Guardian editorial arguing Osama bin Laden was the real victor of the Iraq War.
What Use is Religion? (2004) – Argues that religion may have no survival value other than to itself.
Race and Creation (2004) – On race, its usage and a theory of how it evolved.
The giant tortoise's tale, The turtle's tale and The lava lizard's tale (2005) – A series of three articles written after a visit to the Galápagos Islands.
See also Papers and commentary by Richard Dawkins (no longer maintained) and Dawkins' Huffington Post articles.
Selected documentaries
Nice Guys Finish First
The Blind Watchmaker
The God Who Wasn't There
The Atheism Tapes
The Root of All Evil?
Growing Up In The Universe
The Enemies of Reason
Books about Dawkins and his ideas
Ed Sexton (2001) Dawkins and the Selfish Gene (ISBN 1-84046-238-8) – A short summary and defence of Dawkins' ideas.
Kim Sterelny (2001) Dawkins vs Gould: Survival of the Fittest (ISBN 1-84046-249-3) – Debates on evolutionary theory between Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould.
Alister McGrath (2005) (ISBN 1-4051-2538-1) – A critique of Dawkins' attack on theistic religion.
Alan Grafen & Mark Ridley (eds.) (2006) (ISBN 0-19-929116-0) – An anthology of 25 essays on Dawkins and his work.
Keith Ward (2006) Is Religion Dangerous? (ISBN 978-0745952628) – A critique of Dawkins' suggestion that religion does more harm than good.
Alister McGrath (2007) The Dawkins Delusion? (ISBN 978-0281059270) – A critical response to Dawkins' The God Delusion.
John Cornwell (2007) Darwin's Angel (ISBN 9781846680489) – "An angelic riposte to The God Delusion."
David Robertson (2007) The Dawkins Letters (ISBN 978-1845502614) – "Challenging atheist myths."
» See also: List of books by and about Richard Dawkins and Richard Dawkins Bibliography at the Richard Dawkins official website.
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