Books : The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science)
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by: Richard Dawkins
List Price: $17.95Amazon.com's Price: $12.21 You Save: $5.74 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.82
EAN: 9780192880512
ISBN: 0192880519
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: August 05, 1999
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 27311
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
By the best selling author of The Selfish Gene 'This entertaining and thought-provoking book is an excellent illustration of why the study of evolution is in such an exciting ferment these days.' Science 'The Extended Phenotype is a sequel to The Selfish Gene . . . he writes so clearly it could be understood by anyone prepared to make the effort' John Maynard Smith, London Review of Books 'Dawkins is quite incapable of being boring this characteristically brilliant and stimulating book is original and provocative throughout, and immensely enjoyable.' G. A. Parker, Heredity 'The extended phenotype is certainly a big idea and it is pressed hard in dramatic language.' Sydney Brenner, Nature 'Richard Dawkins, our most radical Darwinian thinker, is also our best science writer.' Douglas Adams 'Dawkins is a superb communicator. His books are some of the best books ever written on science.' Megan Tressider, Guardian 'Dawkins is a genius of science popularization.' Mark Ridley, The Times
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Theory, without the distractions.
TEP is primarily a technical treatise. It elaborates the implications of holding a Darwinian explanation for the diversity of life forms across and, most especially, through time. In detail, the reader is alerted to what is conceptually required for a Darwinian theory to be internally consistent, and for it then to be applicable to life as it is and as it has been.
Professor Dawkins persists in using the misleadingly emotive terminology from his previous best seller, The Selfish Gene. ... Read More
Rating:  - A scholastic argument
I read this book because Dawkins in other fora has identified it as his best work. He says it's a version of "The Selfish Gene" for biologists, but as Daniel Dennett points out in the afterword, it is actually an extended philosophical argument. More precisely, it's a scholastic disquisition on why it's only the individual gene that may be denominated as the "unit of selection" for purposes of natural selection as opposed to the organism or some other model. Here's an example of why this is more a ... Read More
Rating: - Why the ridiculously small type?
I was impressed with Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" and this book is the logical followup. It is more complicated and therefore more difficult to comprehend than the former. So that makes the very small type all the more annoying -- it adds to the difficulty. Seriously, the type size is among the smallest I have seen in any modern mass produced book.
Anyone know if any of the earlier editions have larger type?
Rating: - Good info
Beware that this book is a lot more technical than the Selfish Gene, although Dawkins writes it in a similar fashion and includes a glossary for the tricky terms.
I did find it more repetitive than I was expecting as Dawkins really strives to drive the point home, but as a whole it's still a great book.
Rating:  - More delving for truth, less bashing falsehood
Lots of people seem to know about Dawkins as a Enthusiastic Bright, or at least as a 'staunch atheist'. Selfish Gene takes digs at religion. Blind Watchmaker certainly takes digs at religion. Ancestor's Tale even seems to have some (though I've not got all through it yet.) I haven't even opened "The God Delusion" yet, and I can make a good guess about the digging I'll find there.
The Extended Phenotype, on the other hand, is pretty well free of anti-religious side commentary. It reads much ... Read More
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