Friday, June 15, 2012

The Selfish Gene

Have you ever wondered why pharmacists have allowed themselves to become so fragmented or why the profession hasn't united to form just one specific organization that represents all pharmacists as a whole, and one in which all pharmacists belonged? It seems to be an impossible task.

What makes us behave so foolishly? I wonder if perhaps it's because we haven't embraced the "gene-centred view of professional evolution"? Watch this Richard Dawkins documentary which discusses selfishness and cooperativeness to see what I mean.

Dawkins coined 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. From the gene-centred view follows that the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other.

Therefore the "selfish gene" concept is especially good at explaining many forms of social altruism, regardless of a common misuse of the term along the lines of a selfishness gene.

1 comment:

  1. The fundamental contention that The Selfish Gene makes is that the normal determination measure in the evolution of living creatures isn't tied in with making the species, local area, or gathering secure. It is tied in with making the individual protections, and the individual is just a vehicle for its genes.

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