Richard Dawkins: biography and contributions of this British science popularizer.

This science writer has masterfully described some of the mysteries of evolution.

What percentage of our behavior is explained by genetics? Is evolution entirely based on our genes? How important are our relationships with other individuals of the same species?

These questions have been asked ever since Darwin spoke of evolutionary processes. Many ethologists and biologists have tried to address these questions.

Among them is Richard Dawkins, an English ethologist and evolutionary biologist who has formulated such controversial concepts as the selfish gene, as well as having popularized the word 'meme'.

Biography of Richard Dawkins

Let's take a closer look at the life of this great scientist.whose informative task is still active today.

Early years

Clinton Richard Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 26, 1941.. He was the son of a farmer stationed as a soldier in British colonial Africa. Richard Dawkins lived in a well-to-do middle-class family in which there was always a fascination with science.

At the age of eight he moved to England with his parents, where they got a farm to live on.

He embraced the Christian faith until he was a teenager, when he came to the conclusion that the theory of evolution offered a better explanation of the complexity of life than creationism, leaving God aside.

Training

Between 1954 and 1959 Richard Dawkins attended school at Oundle in Northamptonshirea public school with a preference for Anglican education. While attending this school, Dawkins read books on atheism and agnosticism.

Subsequently, he studied zoology at Balliol College, graduating in 1962. He was a student of the Nobel Prize-winning ethologist in medicine Nikolaas Tinbergen, as well as part of his research group. He went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy in 1966.

Working with Tinbergen was a great opportunity for Dawkins, since the Dutch biologist was one of the pioneers in the study of animal behavior, especially animal learning, decision and instinct.

Professional career

From 1967 to 1969 he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California at Berkeley.. During these years, the students of the university were against the Vietnam War and Dawkins himself took part in the protests. In 1970 he went to Oxford University as a lecturer.

In 1995 he took up the Charles Simonyi Chair of the Dissemination of Science, a position he held until 2008.

He has had the opportunity to give several inaugural lectures, including the Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1989), the Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture (1990), the Michael Faraday Lecture (1991), the Tinbergen Lecture (2000) and the Tanner Lecture (2003).

He has been the editor of four scientific journals and founder of the Episteme Journal in 2002. In addition, he has acted in an advisory capacity for popular science publications, such as the Encarta Encyclopedia.

He has chaired the life sciences section of the British Society for the Advancement of Science. He has also served as editor and columnist for Free Inquiry magazine and has also contributed to Skeptic magazine.

In 2008 he retired from teaching, focusing on writing books whose purpose is to warn young people of the dangers of believing in pseudoscientific ideas. In 2011 he joined the New College of the Humanities in London as a lecturer.

Personal life

Richard Dawkins has been married three times. The first was to Marian Stamp in 1967, whom he divorced in 1984.whom he divorced in 1984. He then married Eve Barham, with whom he had a daughter, but also divorced her.

He later married Lalla Ward in 1992, from whom he separated in 2016 amicably.

In 2016 he suffered a stroke while at home. Fortunately he was able to recover that same year.

Work, thought and criticism

The work of Richard Dawkins covers different fields of knowledge. Let's find out what are his contributions and what criticism he has received from other scientists and popularizers.

Evolutionary biology

Among his great contributions to knowledge, Dawkins' work is known for dealing with the idea that genes are the main unit of selection in evolution. In his books The Selfish Gene (1976) and The Extended Phenotype (1982) he suggests this.

In his books he discusses the idea that genes are not limited to the body of the organism that possesses them. The idea is that the survival of several organisms with the same genotype actually guarantees that genes can be passed on to the next generation.

Dawkins has been skeptical about non-adaptive processes in evolution. He is also critical of the idea that group selection is the basis of altruism in gregarious animals.

Altruism, i.e., helping another individual even at the risk of endangering oneself, is an evolutionary paradox.

Subsequently, this concept was treated as a way of helping beings that possess the same genetics and that, after all, their survival guarantees that the genes will be passed on to the next generation.

Dawkins' main criticism of the selfish gene is that the gene itself does not have the capacity to reproduce itself.. It should not be considered as the unit of natural selection.

Genes survive through the interaction and survival of several individuals in social animal species.

Dawkins is considered to propose a too gene-centered perspective to explain evolutionary processes, and even goes as far as Biological reductionism.

Memetics

The word "meme" has become popular in the last decadeThe word meme has become popular in the last decade, especially due to the great development of social networks. The idea comes from Dawkins himself, who exposed it in The Selfish Gene.

Dawkins refers to meme as the behavioral equivalent of gene. His more precise definition is that of any cultural entity, be it an idea, behavior or style, that is passed from individual to individual.

Memes are not always copied exactly. They may undergo modifications as they are spread through the social group or culture in which they are generated. In turn, these alterations generate more memes.

This concept becomes very important when dealing with cultural evolution and comparing it with classical biological evolution.

It should be said that the word 'meme' or 'mneme' is not entirely Dawkins'. The idea had already been suggested since Darwin's time, only Richard Dawkins expounded it in greater depth in his popular science work.

Religion and creationism

Dawkins is an agnostic, although many people have defined him as an atheist.. In his work he shows a very critical view of religions,

He has stated on several occasions that he finds it difficult to understand how people who hold a lot of power in first world countries and who have received a thorough education, especially in science, can have religious beliefs.

Dawkins considers that the existence of God should be treated like any other scientific hypothesis. He has also stated that religion is a source of conflict and justification without evidence.

Since he published his most outstanding work on this subject, The God Mirage (2006), he has participated in numerous debates on religion, both with believing scientists and influential people within Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

He has been strongly opposed to the indoctrination of religion in schools, especially the pseudoscientific belief in creation, as has already been done in several states in the United States.

Although he has debated with believers, he has preferred to avoid discussions with those who believe in the Creation myth, since he believes that these types of people, regardless of whether or not they are won in the argument, would be given the visibility they desire.

One of the arguments often used to demolish creationism is that biological evolution exists, it has just been observed while it was occurring.

Awards and recognitions

Richard Dawkins' life has been prolific and he has received several awards. He holds several honorary doctorates in science from multiple universities around the world, including the universities of Westminster, Antwerp, Oslo and Valencia. He also holds doctorates of letters from the universities of Saint Andrews and the Australian National University.

His book The Blind Watchmaker (1986) won the Royal Society of Literature Prize and the Los Angeles Times Literary Award in 1987.

Among his many other awards are the Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London (1989), the Michael Faraday Award (1990) and the Presidential Medal of the President of the Italian Republic (2001). The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry gave him the In Praise of Reason award in 1992. In 2012 a genus of Sri Lankan fish was named Dawkinsia.

Curiosities

In 2005 Discover magazine referred to Richard Dawkins as 'Darwin's Rottweiler'. This is a reference to the epithet used to refer to another great follower of Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, called "Darwin's Rottweiler"., Thomas Henry Huxley, called 'Darwin's bulldog' and, facetiously, that of 'God's rottweiler', an epithet given to the then Cardinal Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI.

Bibliographical references:

• Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dawkins, Richard (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. * Dawkins, R. (December 1992). "Is god a computer virus?". New Statesman. 5 (233): 42-45.
• Dawkins, R. (June 1993). "Meet my cousin, the chimpanzee". New Scientist. 138 (1876): 36-38.
• Dawkins, R. (January 2001). "What is science good for?". Harvard Business Review. 79 (1): 159–63, 178.
• Dawkins, Richard (2006): The God delusion (pág. 406). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
• Dawkins, R.; Dawkins, R; Noble, D; Yudkin, M (2007). "Genes still central". New Scientist. 196 (2634): 18.
• Dawkins, R. (2008). "The group delusion". New Scientist. 197 (2638): 17.
• Dawkins, R. (2008). "The evolution of altruism – what matters is gene selection". New Scientist. 197 (2638): 17.
• Dawkins, R. (2013). An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist. Bantam Press (United States and United Kingdom).