As other readers have pointed out the good parts, let me dwell on some shortcomings. The title "The Selfish Gene" despite the author's attempts to justify it, is somewhat misleading especially to those who are inclined to mistrust Darwinism. The title clearly is not intended to imply that there is a gene for selfishness rather that all genes are selfish. The other drawback is that the notion of a selfish replicator is not elaborated sufficiently perhaps because it falls outside the scope of biology. Nevertheless it may be argued that there is no compelling evidence so far that such a structure could emerge in nature using purely mechanical rather than teleological principles.