Dawkins, Richard (1941–)

Contributions and Perspectives

In the area of science, particularly concerning the processes of biological evolution, the general public has been given an array of theoretical interpretations concerning the biological mechanisms that explain the diversity of life on this planet. Acknowledging the cultural influence on these interpretations (e.g., religious or vitalistic beliefs), Richard Dawkins continues to provide the public with an understandable materialistic explanation of complex scientific knowledge that was attained during the last century. Although he is not considered a philosopher of science, his materialistic interpretation of biological processes has caused severe criticisms, essentially labeling him either a biological determinist or an extreme reductionist. Being a defender of Darwinian evolution, Dawkins poses a plausible relationship between biological processes and expressed behavior within an evolutionary framework.

Taking a purely materialistic view of concerning the processes of evolution, the process of adaptive radiation and speciation has accounted for both the diversity and complexity of organic life found on this planet. Although Dawkins himself supports a Darwinian gradualist's view of the evolutionary process, he does hold that a momentary punctuation in evolution could be supported by several factors, [Page 710]among them being mutations, extinctions, and exponential growth of more suitable organisms within an ecological niche. Though in this manner, life may seem to possess a creative teleology stemming from a complex design, the implications from the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule dissolves any remote theological plausibility. The four base units, adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine (A, T, C, G) is the first cause and only cause from the outgrowth of the symbiotic relationship among the various cells and/or tissues within an organism. Essentially, we are replicators (vessels) for our genes. Within the processes of life, the DNA is beyond the scope of good or evil; their existence drives us to action and replication.

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