The war of words between the biologists EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins has reignited after the Harvard professor described his Oxford counterpart, apparently derogatorily, as a “journalist”.
In an interview with Evan Davis on BBC2’s Newsnight to promote his latest book, Wilson was asked about his differing view of natural selection compared with that of Dawkins.
Wilson answered: “There is no dispute between me and Richard Dawkins and there never has been, because he’s a journalist, and journalists are people that report what the scientists have found and the arguments I’ve had have actually been with scientists doing research.”
Shortly after the programme was broadcast, Dawkins tweeted: “I greatly admire EO Wilson & his huge contributions to entomology, ecology, biogeography, conservation, etc. He’s just wrong on kin selection.”
He was referring to his 1982 book, a sequel to his previous work, The Selfish Gene. The later book is considered by the high-profile Darwinist to be his principal contribution to evolutionary theory.
Wilson was asked about his current views on the concept of a selfish gene, to which he replied: “I have abandoned it and I think most serious scientists working on it have abandoned it. Some defenders may be out there, but they have been relatively or almost totally silenced since our major paper came out.”
The paper he referred to was a 2010 study published in Nature entitled The evolution of eusociality.
Read full original article: Biological warfare flares up again between EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins
