Word: emmerichs
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...says J. Wyatt. Well, I can't argue with that. The point is that this person, in 1977, still thinks that this implies that we are completely different and completely "better." Any evolutionist would laugh himself silly at the notion of "farther down on the evolutionary scale," a notion Emmerich makes use of, but you can bet that Professor Lewontin isn't going to tell Wyatt that, because he is attacking someone who needs attacking "for the good of the people...
...write, without glee and thinking that I'm probably wasting my time, to complain about a review by J. Wyatt Emmerich that appeared in the April 11 Crimson. It is not opinion that I criticize, but misrepresentation of the book, Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene...
...Dawkins," says Emmerich, "writes as though genes are conscious entities" and goes on to explain, as if Dawkins did not, that genes are not conscious and that "what Dawkins is really talking about" is simple evolution. However, Dawkins states explicitly "selfish genes are unconscious, blind, replicators" (p.215). He explains early (p. 48) that "evolution is the process by which some genes become more and others less numerous in the gene pool" and that "at times, gene language gets a bit tedious, and for brevity and vividness we shall lapse into metaphor...
...States Emmerich, "there is no such things as a 'selfish gene'." Of course, as Dawkins says, genes are not conscious, and, as he repeatedly emphasizes, he is not talking about motives in behavior, but of practical effects. Those genes that created local environments that perpetuated their own survival were those that survived. It is clearly in this sense that genes are truly selfish...
...Dawkins," writes Emmerich, "has gotten too wrapped up in his theories of genetic determinism to admit that cultural and environmental influences also affect behavior" and says that it is not until the last chapter that Dawkins "finally acknowledges that humans can 'rebel' against their 'selfish genes'." But, on page three, Dawkins states...