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Dawkins uses the analogy of oarsmen to explain that a gene only cooperates with other genes when cooperation increases the chances of its survival. In the analogy, oarsmen (or rowers) are individual genes. A rowboat is the body of an organism. Each oarsman needs several teammates to fill a rowboat in order to so that he can win the race. Each oarsman is selfish, because he wants to win the race. But, likely, his chances of winning the race are increased when his teammates are a good fit with him. For example, it helps if they all speak the same language. It also helps if four oarsmen are right-handed and four are left-handed. Dawkins’ metaphor makes clear that just as oarsmen sharing rowboat cooperate to win a race, genes sharing a body collaborate to ensure the body’s survival. It’s significant, though, that each oarsman cooperates not in order to help the other genes, but for much more selfish reasons: he wants to win the race. Dawkins uses this analogy to show how examples of cooperation in nature can mask selfish motivations. He thinks that every example of cooperative behavior is motivated by a gene interested in its own survival, just as every example of cooperation in the rowboat is motivated by an oarsman interested in winning the race.
Oarsmen Quotes in The Selfish Gene
The The Selfish Gene quotes below all refer to the symbol of Oarsmen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
The oarsmen are the genes. The rivals for each seat in the boat are alleles potentially capable of occupying the same slot along the length of a chromosome. Rowing fast corresponds to building a body which is successful at surviving. The wind is the environment. The pool of alternative candidates is the gene pool. As far as the survival of any one body is concerned, all its genes are in the same boat.
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Oarsmen Symbol Timeline in The Selfish Gene
The timeline below shows where the symbol Oarsmen appears in The Selfish Gene. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Immortal Coils
...also cooperate since they share survival machines. Dawkins uses another metaphor to explain this phenomenon: oarsmen in a rowboat. An oarsman cannot win a race by himself. He needs several colleagues...
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Chapter 5: Aggression
...strategy concept is also useful for explaining why genes appear to “cooperate.” Dawkins revisits the oarsmen metaphor to explain genetic cooperation. Imagine the coach is mixing up candidates at random to...
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In general, it’s hard for a new oarsman to infiltrate a well performing team. For example, replacing one of the right-handed rowers with...
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Chapter 13: The Long Reach of the Gene
...it’s placed in. One of the most important factors is other replicators. Just like the oarsmen, replicators that work well together to achieve a joint goal will dominate the world.
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