Rating: ****
Tags: Science, Life Sciences, Evolution, Lang:en
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Added: March 28, 2020
Modified: November 5, 2021
Summary
Richard Dawkins’s classic remains the
definitive argument for our modern understanding of
evolution.
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. 22 illustrations
**