The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without
Design is a 1986 book by Richard Dawkins in which he presents an explanation of,
and argument for, the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
He also presents arguments to refute certain criticisms made on his previous
book, The Selfish Gene. An unabridged audiobook edition was released in 2011,
narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward.
Overview In his choice of the title for this
book, Dawkins refers to the watchmaker analogy made famous by William Paley in
his book Natural Theology. Paley, arguing more than fifty years before
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, held that the complexity of
living organisms was evidence of the existence of a divine creator by drawing
a parallel with the way in which the existence of a watch compels belief in
an intelligent watchmaker. Dawkins, in contrasting the differences between
human design and its potential for planning with the workings of natural
selection, therefore dubbed evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind
watchmaker. To dispel the idea that complexity
cannot arise without the intervention of a "creator", Dawkins uses the example of
the eye. Beginning with a simple organism, capable only of distinguishing
between light and dark, in only the crudest fashion, he takes the reader
through a series of minor modifications, which build in sophistication until we
arrive at the elegant and complex mammalian eye. In making this journey,
he points to several creatures whose various seeing apparatus are, whilst
still useful, living examples of intermediate levels of complexity.
In developing his argument that natural selection can explain the complex
adaptations of organisms, Dawkins' first concern is to illustrate the difference
between the potential for the development of complexity as a result of
pure randomness, as opposed to that of randomness coupled with cumulative
selection. He demonstrates this by the example of the weasel program. Dawkins
then describes his experiences with a more sophisticated computer model of
artificial selection implemented in a program also called The Blind
Watchmaker, which was sold separately as a teaching aid.
The program displayed a two dimensional shape made up of straight black lines,
the length, position, and angle of which were defined by a simple set of rules
and instructions. Adding new lines based on these rules offered a discrete set of
possible new shapes, which were displayed on screen so that the user
could choose between them. The chosen mutation would then be the basis for
another generation of biomorph mutants to be chosen from, and so on. Thus, the
user, by selection, could steer the evolution of biomorphs. This process
often produced images which were reminiscent of real organisms for
instance beetles, bats, or trees. Dawkins speculated that the unnatural
selection role played by the user in this program could be replaced by a more
natural agent if, for example, colourful biomorphs could be selected by
butterflies or other insects, via a touch sensitive display set up in a
garden. In an appendix to a later edition of the
book, Dawkins explains how his experiences with computer models led him
to a greater appreciation of the role of embryological constraints on natural
selection. In particular, he recognised that certain patterns of embryological
development could lead to the success of a related group of species in filling
varied ecological niches, though he continued to maintain that this should
not be confused with the ideas associated with group selection. He
dubbed this insight the evolution of evolvability.
After arguing that evolution is capable of explaining the origin of complexity,
near the end of the book Dawkins uses this to argue against the existence of
God: "a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world,
either instantaneously or by guiding evolution ... must already have been
vastly complex in the first place ..." He calls this "postulating organized
complexity without offering an explanation."
In its preface, Dawkins states that he wrote the book "to persuade the reader,
not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the
only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our
existence." Notes
References Dawkins, Richard [1986]. The Blind
Watchmaker. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-31570-3.
Maynard Smith, John. "Evolution for those that have ears." New Scientist
112: 61. External links
We Are All Contraptions – review by Michael Ghiselin