User:Lunar 564/The Selfish Genius

The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin's Legacy is a book on the History and philosophy of science of Evolutionary Theory by Fern Elsdon-Baker, published in 2009 the year that celebrates the 150th anniversary of on the Origin of Species. The book provides an oversight of the Historical and Philosophical debates that have continued throughout the history of Evolutionary Theory, and carry on to this day in debates surrounding the merits of gene-centric selection and group selection models. The book is particularly critical of the popular science author Richard Dawkins claiming he portrays a brand of evolutionary theory that states natural selection acts at the level of gene to the exclusion of group selection models that state it could also act at the level of organisms or species. The book also claims Dawkins has an outdated and prescriptive way of understanding evolution that actually restricts debate rather than exciting it.