Research On Dawkins’ Evolutionary Thought

As an evolutionary biologist and a staunch defender of Darwinian evolution,Dawkins not only enjoyed a high status in the academic world,but also his important ideas of "replicator","selfish gene" and "meme" had a huge impact in modern society.However,the debate and criticism surrounding Dawkins’ thought of evolution also continued,even quite fierce.In view of Dawkins’ evolutionary thought and its connotation has not yet been well understood,some doubts and criticisms are actually misunderstandings of his mind and even the theory of evolution.Therefore,this thesis is based on the evolution thoughts of Dawkins,and attempts to systematically sort out and analyze the debates surrounding his evolutionary thoughts by interpreting of Dawkins’ original work,and then reveal the philosophical and practical implications of important ideas such as genetic selection and memes.Dawkins’ evolutionary thought and its influence are multi-faceted.This paper aims to conduct a systematic and in-depth exploration of his gene selection thought and its creative extension-meme-on the basis of previous research.First of all,on the basis of expounding the main connotation of the theory of gene selection,it explores how Dawkins’ s evolution thought came into being and how it developed.Then,in view of the internal and external doubts and disputes faced by the gene selection theory,it focuses on analyzing the characteristics,status and implication of Dawkins’ gene selection thought.Furthermore,it expounds the extension and expansion of Dawkins’ thought on genetic selection,especially the philosophical presupposition of analyzing memes and its value to the study of cultural evolution.Finally,from the perspective of information-computationism,it reveals the philosophical significance of Dawkins’ evolutionary thought for understanding the nature of life and human evolution.This paper focuses on expounding and demonstrating: 1.Dawkins’ s main contribution to the theory of gene selection is to put forward the concept of replication factor and its distinction from vector;2.The extended phenotype is an important part of Dawkins’ gene selection theory;3.Dawkins first proposed the concept of meme as a replicator of cultural evolution,which is his most original thought;4.From the perspective of information-computationism,Dawkins’ replicator is the embodiment of the informational nature of life and culture,while evolution is essentially the computational process of generating,replicating,and disseminating information.After a systematic study of Dawkins’ evolutionary thought,this paper draws the following conclusions: First of all,Darwinism is a universal scientific research program.From genes to memes,Dawkins’ s evolutionary picture illuminates the general mechanisms and implications of evolution.As a universal research program,Darwinism can not only explain biological and cultural evolution,but can also be extended to a wider range of scientific fields.Secondly,Genes and memes share an information-computation-based ontology.In the theory of genetic and biological evolution,information mainly refers to DNA information and how this information guides the synthesis of proteins,and the substrate for its realization includes the entire organism;while in memes and cultural evolution,the information with representative content mainly refers to the product(idea or knowledge)of processing the original information,the substrate for its realization is localized in the nervous system of an organism(mainly humans)and the natural or artificial medium through which information can be transmitted.Based on the ontological presupposition of information-computation,Dawkins argues that the process of biological evolution is a river of genes in which information is continuously created,copied,exchanged and selected,and from this river of genes,a new river of memes(information)branches out.Thirdly,the significance of cultural evolution lies in the growth and preservation of knowledge.Human beings are the subject of biological and cultural evolution.The mental content created and externalized by people can be regarded as memes,and the reproduction and dissemination of memes are realized through imitation and language between us.In the long history of cultural evolution,the really successful meme is(and will be)knowledge,especially scientific knowledge.