Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Dawkins attempts to zero in on his main idea a bit more precisely in this chapter. He explains that what he means by a selfish gene is actually a bit of DNA and all its replicas (copies) distributed in any living thing "trying" to program these bodies to act in ways that will help make more of itself.

Sometimes for a trait to exist in nature, gene fragments from two different sources have to come together in one body. This is called a recessive gene, and it can exist or ride along through many generations without doing anything noticeable. More on this subject will be presented later.

Also, genes or gene fragments sometimes have more than one effect on growing a body. Altruistic genes—or genes that somehow program bodies to do good things for others even if these altruistic...