Dawkins, [Clinton] Richard

British (Kenyan-born) ethologist, evolutionist, geneticist, and popularizer of evolutionary biology

wrote "The Selfish Gene" 1976 (revised edition 1989), "The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of Selection" 1982, "The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design" 1986, "River Out of Eden" 1995, "Climbing Mount Improbable" 1996

pioneer of memetics

coined word "meme"

• "Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which simply do not make evolutionary sense."
• "Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which simply do not make evolutionary sense."
• "Nature is not cruel, pitilessly, indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous -- indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose."