Richard Dawkins Memes The Selfish Gene

Most people know that the word meme was coined by legendary evolutionary biologist richard dawkins in his seminal 1976 book the selfish gene what few realize however is that the vocal atheist and champion of evidence as the holy grail of life who even penned a children s book rebutting religious mythology with science had his first experience of a true meme decades before he had.

Richard dawkins memes the selfish gene. The word meme originated with richard dawkins 1976 book the selfish gene dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist l. Dawkins uses the term selfish gene as a way of expressing the gene centred view of evolution as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group popularising ideas developed during the. The selfish gene is a 1976 book on evolution by the biologist richard dawkins in which the author builds upon the principal theory of george c. Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics but only on the existence of a self replicating unit of transmission in the case of biological.

Learn more about the history of memes in this article. The term meme from the greek mimema meaning imitated was introduced in 1976 by british evolutionary biologist richard dawkins in his work the selfish gene. Williams s adaptation and natural selection 1966. Meme unit of cultural information spread by imitation.