a book
The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
Richard Dawkins · 2006 · 466 pages
The Blind Watchmaker is the seminal text for understanding evolution today. In the eighteenth century, theologian William Paley developed a famous metaphor for creationism: that of the skilled watchmaker. In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins crafts an elegant riposte to show that the complex process of Darwinian natural selection is unconscious and automatic. If natural selection can be said to play the role of a watchmaker in nature, it is a blind one--working without foresight or purpose.
In an eloquent, uniquely persuasive account of the theory of natural selection, Dawkins illustrates how simple organisms slowly change over time to create a world of enormous complexity, diversity, and beauty.
recommended by 12 people
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Steven Pinker
“Perhaps the best display of expository scientific prose of the twentieth century. It gave me the idea to try my hand at the genre in The Language Instinct, and had a strong influence on my own writing.”↗
Neil Degrasse Tyson
““Dawkins is a longtime friend, and a tireless defender of the real story of how we all got here. This 1986 book is a reminder that the laws of evolution and natural selection, given billions of years, have no trouble generating stupefying complexity among life-forms on Earth.” -NdT”↗
Charlie Munger
“If you take Dawkins "the Selfish Gene" and the "Blind Watchmaker" I mean these are marvelous books and their words in those books that are entering the English language that are gonna be in the next Oxford Dictionary. I mean these are powerful books.”↗
Jerry Coyne
“If I had to pick just one self-contained book that lays out Dawkins’s philosophy and methodology, and shows his literary skills, I would have to pick this one. His most famous book is The Selfish Gene because it lays out the gene-centred view of evolution, but it’s a bit of a tough slog. All the stuff you find in it you can also find in The Blind Watchmaker.”↗
Sanjay Bakshi
“@philoinvestor @SridharanAnand There are many books on this but the ones I like the most are quite old. Selfish gene and blind watchmaker. Both by Dawkins.”↗
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