Richard Dawkins

Since the beginning of mankind, all human beings have and always will be selfish. There is no such thing a selfless good deed and altruism has ceased to exist. Selfishness is what allowed survival of the fittest. Julian Barnes touches on the subject in “The Visitors”, the second chapter of his novel, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters. In doing so, he relates two events in which a monkey and a man, Franklin Hughes, are left to make the ultimate decision of saving a loved one or making a…

“The Selfish Gene:” a paradigmatic novel in which Richard Dawkins describes evolution in terms of the gene and ultimately depicts the fitness that is maximized by organismal beings on the genetic level. Similarly to the gene, Dawkins implements the term “meme” in his description of societal evolution regarding the spread of ideas throughout civilization. As stated by Scott Atran, a meme is “an element of culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, especially imitation.”…

Being selfish means only caring about yourself and don’t care about other people. In both texts “Abuela Invents The Zero” and “Gombei and the Wild Ducks” there is a character being selfish. There is a common theme in the texts “Abuela Invents the Zero” and “Gombei and the Wild Ducks,” they took different approaches to show the theme. In “Abuela Invents the Zero” and “Gombei and the Wild Ducks” the theme is don’t always think about yourself. In the text “Abuela Invents the Zero,” Connie is…

Stephen Jay Gould’s Darwin’s Delay Knowing something is true and having the ability to prove it are on different ends of the spectrum. Charles Darwin and Stephen Jay Gould may have known something about that. His name may not be as recognizable to the average person but Stephen Jay Gould is a widely known and read 20th century scientist. Some even consider him to be the on the same level as Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin spent most of his life researching and trying to prove his theories. He…

reciprocity is against human nature. Throughout the history of human evolution, it is the selfish ones that survive (Dawkins 2006) . Selfishness goes along with competition with both starting very early in our evolutionary history. Selfishness is something that permeates all levels of humans, because if our ancestors weren’t selfish then the people alive today would not be (Dawkins 2006). Overall the reason that people have trouble following the ideals represented in the…

In Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Think Like a Freak many key aspects of challenging unconventional thinking and “thinking like a freak”. One piece of advice the book offers is to incentivize people, but don’t manipulate them. This is valuable advice, which many people will find to be a beneficial resource to getting what they want. Incentives can be useful in achieving goals that would be otherwise unattainable without the help of others. Humans are inherently selfish beings, not…

Victor Frankenstein’s solitary work leads to selfishness because he is solely responsible for his creation and would receive all the glory for his creation if it is successful. Selfishness is defined as an individual becoming consumed with the prospect of success that they neglect their social relationships. Unlike Frankenstein’s solitary work, Smith’s proposed division of labor promotes harmonious relationships between individuals because multiple people are working together to create something…

Science is in everything, including religion and lack thereof. In this paper I will show how scientism is tied in with the aspects of religious faith and atheism. First and foremost science is defined as the analytical and empirical basis for understanding reality, truth is either analytically understood or empirically verifiable. Also the main arguments that will be discussed deal with the finely tuned universe, the teleological argument, the theory of pragmatism and biological evolution.…

not care about what happens to himself, Rand’s execution of this trait is very unrealistic. Roark says “I don’t intend to build in order to serve or help anyone. I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”(26) like he is not going to put any effort into what he wants and let what happens happen. Rand probably intended this to sound like some great self-righteous proclamation but it is simply unrealistic. Realistically if Roark was truly…

One of the first things Dawkins says is the evils of teaching children that certain things are true without evidence. “Teaching children that faith is a virtue, is that you are teaching them that you don’t have to justify what you do”- Professor Dawkins. He then states that if someone says “that is my faith” then you have to backaway and respect that. I believe that you should be able to talk to them about what you believe, but you should not attack them for it. Dawkins goes on to say that…