Dawkins, (Clinton) Richard (1941– )

English evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. His book The Selfish Gene (1976) popularized the theories of sociobiology (social behaviour in humans and animals in the context of evolution). In The Blind Watchmaker (1986) he explained the modern theory of evolution, and in The God Delusion (2006) he expounded the arguments for atheism. In 1995 Dawkins became Oxford's Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science (a position endowed by software executive Charles Simonyi with the express intention that Dawkins be its first holder).

Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated at Oxford, where he held various academic posts from 1975.

In The Selfish Gene he argued that genes – not individuals, populations, or species – are the driving force of evolution. He suggested an analogous system of cultural transmission in human societies, and proposed the term ‘mimeme’, abbreviated to ‘meme’, as the unit of such a scheme. He considered the idea of God to be a meme with a high survival value. His contentions were further developed in The Extended Phenotype (1982), primarily an academic work.

Other works include River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), and A Devil's Chaplain (2003).