The blind watchmaker
Worth buying if: You enjoyed Dawkins' gene-centered ideas and examples from The Selfish Gene.
Skip it if: You want a purely technical, mathematics-heavy evolutionary textbook.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780393351491. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
In The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins explains how cumulative natural selection produces complex biological features without a designer, using thought experiments, evolutionary examples, and accessible argumentation across 466 pages.
Why this book now
Revisit Dawkins' influential defense of evolution as debates about science education and public trust in biology continue to matter.
30-second preview
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You enjoyed Dawkins' gene-centered ideas and examples from The Selfish Gene.
- You appreciate clear evolutionary thought experiments explaining natural selection.
- When you seek a book that challenges assumptions, clues accumulate across perspectives, rewarding careful reading with layered payoffs rather than a single twist.
- You want a purely technical, mathematics-heavy evolutionary textbook.
- You prefer religiously sympathetic discussions of design or creationism.
- When you want minimal sensory detail, the ending prioritizes theme over tidy closure.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780393351491
Worth buying if: You enjoyed Dawkins' gene-centered ideas and examples from The Selfish Gene.
Skip it if: You want a purely technical, mathematics-heavy evolutionary textbook.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Steady Needs some room
At roughly 466 pages, expect a deep, essay-driven read that mixes conceptual explanations and biological case studies across several focused chapters.
What stands out here
This W. W. Norton edition preserves Dawkins' original 2015 text and examples, highlighting his explanatory passages and thought experiments about cumulative selection.
Best way to approach it
Read steadily chapter by chapter, pausing to follow the thought experiments and evolutionary examples rather than skimming dense argument passages.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780393351491
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.