Hacker News Reader

Regarding 'the selfish gene', I still think that the concept that the gene is the unit of evolution and the resulting organism is just its proxy, is one of the greatest insights since Darwin.

Be that as it might, that is not Dawkins' idea (i believe the foremost thinker in that regard is W. D. Hamilton), what Dawkins did was just giving it the catchy name.

'folli never claimed it was Dawkins’ idea ;-)

”what Dawkins did was just giving it the catchy name”

Well, he also wrote an accessible book on the subject. And that book is littered with references to other literature on the subject.

Also Lynn Margulis. http://discovermagazine.com/2011/apr/16-interview-lynn-margu...

I've never read that particular Gould book but I have to agree his ideas on biology are pretty mind blowing and more relevant than ever.