The replicators that could reproduce most effectively survived to reproduce, while those that were less effective and efficient became extinct. This replicator would not have copied itself perfectly every time, and random copying errors over extremely large periods of time would have led to the formation and predominance of better and better replicators. He goes back to the first hypothetical replicator (Dawkins' own term), a molecule that could make copies of itself.
His view is one of egoism at the lowest possible level, that everyone is selfish due to the nature of genes. However, I find that though Blackburn succeeds at reconciling evolutionary theory and Dawkins with ethics itself, he does so interestingly in that he fails entirely in his intermediate purpose of arguing against the egoism that Dawkins presents.įirstly, I will summarize the position Dawkins takes on egoism and genetics. Dawkins' arguments are well-founded, with only one minor flaw. In Simon Blackburn's work 'Ethics: A Very Short Introduction', he attempts to argue against this particular flavor of egoism as a way of defusing a threat to ethics. Evolutionary theory, in particular Richard Dawkins' arguments in 'The Selfish Gene', has always been used as support for egoism.
0 kommentar(er)
