The Blind Watchmaker The Blind Watchmaker The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design is a 1986 book by Richard Dawkins, in which the author 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 first book, "The Selfish Gene". (Both books espouse the gene-centric view of evolution.) An unabridged audiobook edition was released in 2011, narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward. In his choice of the title for this book, Dawkins refers to the watchmaker analogy made famous by
The Evolution of Beauty preeminent. Prum proceeds to apply the principle of aesthetic evolution as an independent force in human evolution. Prum indicates that Darwin recognizing difficulties in the theory of natural selection advanced the view that sexual selection is an additional force in evolution and presented this argument in "The Descent of Man". Alfred Russel Wallace, St. George Mivart and other early evolutionists helped to elevate natural selection as the only force in evolution and delegated sexual selection to a subsidiary role. It was argued that sexual selection was based on recognition of markers of survival fitness, so that, for instance in birds,