Unit of selection and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory" provides a basic "philosophical" introduction to the debate. Below, cases of selection at the genic, cellular, individual and group level from within the multi-level selection perspective are presented and discussed. George C. Williams in his influential book "Adaptation and Natural Selection" was one of the first to present a gene-centered view of evolution with the gene as the unit of selection, arguing that a unit of selection should exhibit a high degree of permanence. Richard Dawkins has written several books popularizing and expanding the idea. According to Dawkins, genes cause phenotypes and a gene is
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation amateurish deficiencies. The ideas in the book were favoured by Radicals, but its presentation remained popular with a much wider public. Prince Albert read it aloud to Queen Victoria in 1845. "Vestiges" caused a shift in popular opinion which – Charles Darwin believed – prepared the public mind for the scientific theories of evolution by natural selection which followed from the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. For decades there was speculation about its authorship. The 12th edition, published in 1884, revealed officially that the author was Robert Chambers, a Scottish journalist, who had written the book