The Selfish Gene Another criticism of the book is its treatment of morality, and more particularly altruism, as existing only as a form of selfishness: The philosopher Mary Midgley has suggested this position is a variant of Hobbes' explanation of altruism as enlightened self-interest, and that Dawkins goes a step further to suggest that our genetic programming can be overcome by what amounts to an extreme version of free will. Part of Mary Midgley's concern is that Richard Dawkins' account of "The Selfish Gene" serves as a moral and ideological justification for selfishness to be adopted by modern human societies as simply following
The Evolution of Beauty to encourage readers to accept his arguments on political rather than scientific grounds. Gail Patricelli, Eileen Hebets, and Tamra Mendelson, while describing the book as containing "engaging descriptions of the natural world", criticize Prum's reasoning, description of modern sexual selection research, and conclusions. The Evolution of Beauty The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us is a 2017 book by the ornithologist and evolutionary biologist Richard O. Prum about the power of aesthetic mate choice arguing it to be an important independent agent in evolution. Prum indicates that while Charles Darwin made