Architect’s Plans Symbol Analysis

Just as an architect’s plans give instructions for how to make a building, genes give instructions for how to build an embryo. Dawkins uses the metaphor of architect’s plans to explain how genes are distributed in the body of an organism. Imagine there is a building with a bookcase in every room. Each bookcase contains binders full of loose pages. The pages contain instructions for how to build the house the binders are in. Every bookcase in the building (or cell in the body) contains binders (chromosomes) containing pages which list the full set of instructions for building a copy of that building (genes). Just as architect’s plans are responsible for why a building looks the way it does, genes are responsible for why organisms look and behave the way they do. The only difference is that in the genetic picture, there is no “architect.” The pages are shuffled together at random. This means if they are a good combination of instructions, they’ll produce an organism that won’t die (or a house that won’t fall down). Dawkins is keen to stress this point because he often talks as if genes are conscious, making choices, and acting selfishly and so on. But in actual fact, he means that genes have effects on how organisms look and act, and they survive if those effects keep organisms alive, but none of this is done on purpose. In this sense, the only “architect” in nature is chance.