E.O.Wilson calls Dawkins "a journalist"

This is apparently a long rumbling disagreement (at least four years old), but in a recent interview

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Wilson referred to Dawkins as a journalist, which is about as low a blow as you can hit a scientist with.



It's all about the idea of the selfish gene, which Wilson was once an enthusiastic proponent of, but he now favours group selection, which kin selection via the selfish gene replaced (if I understand correctly). Wilson is an authority on ant colonies; what I haven't seen is a good explanation of what his actual view of the mechanism is. (I guess I should read the paper in Nature, but it's a little pricey.)



More in this piece in the Guardian.

Quote:

Wilson was asked about his current views on the concept of a selfish gene, to which he replied: “I have abandoned it and I think most serious scientists working on it have abandoned it. Some defenders may be out there, but they have been relatively or almost totally silenced since our major paper came out.” The paper he referred to was a 2010 study published in Nature entitled The evolution of eusociality.

That paper, (by Martin A. Nowak, Corina E. Tarnita & Edward O. Wilson) prompted a condemnation by 137 population geneticists.

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