Science and Natural History discussion

We will be reading An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist and I'm hijacking your topic.

Post your questions, comments and outrages here to share and discuss with other members. Happy reading!

The first four chapters are really boring. It's amazing in 2013 that rich old white english colonialists still seem to lack any sort of self-awareness.

I actually think Dawkins is a very good, and lucid, writer, but early in the book, the subject matter is just mind-numbing. Talk of having servants, how great lots of his uncles were and moving here to there while Britain carved up the globe, without apparently even bothering to problematise any of this.

This is someone who is supposed to be a 'public intellectual'. It's someone who sticks their oar in about politics and religion regularly (which he's perfectly entitled to do of course). Someone who complains about not being allowed to take honey on a plane. But it's also someone whose ancestors had hundreds of slaves someone whose ancestors had hundreds of slaves

There's a strange disconnect between Dawkins' attempts to appear progressive,rational and liberal in his public pronouncements, and the immense privilege built on precisely the sort of inequality we'd seek to abolish. You can't distance yourself from the woeful practices of your ancestors while benefiting from the considerable privilege which is partly built on that dark history.

Something else striking about the colonial sections of the book is that (from what I noticed) all the colonialists have names, while many locals are nameless ('friendly african man'); those that do have names are almost exclusively people they pay money to, such as Ali, 'companion and friend' but Ali was also one of the servants, and Dawkins admits, with apparent regret, to calling 'boys'.
The 'cook, gardener and several other servants' don't get names, whereas Mr Ingram, the 'nice man' who 'let [Dawkins] drive sitting on his lap' gets a name.

This biography actually clarifies a lot of Dawkins' increasingly disconnected public pronouncements of the last few years. This is man so deeply steeped in an antiquated world of colonial privilege, and outdated public school and Oxbridge ritual, that he could never have been any other than he is. His time spent in boarding school, where he couldn't even visit his parents during holidays actually made me sad to read. I almost pity him after reading the first four chapters. He strikes me as someone who 'knows so much but understand so little'.

I acknowledge this all sounds harsh, and I do hope in the later chapters go into his scientific disputes with the likes of Gould et al, which is where he should be more interesting and was always an excellent writer.

[edit - corrected chapters read, added link]

Thought it was fine. Didn't mind the first part, thought mostly of it as honest. I however didn't expect it to end right after talking of The Selfish Gene, so that was a surprise.

The book definitely picks up when it starts talking about his experimental work. It's a shame that you have to trundle through half a dozen chapters of tedium to get there.

I did really like his discussions about programming and the experimental set ups he and his colleagues used, interesting to hear about the process of designing equipment and protocol etc.

I do wish it had gone into a little bit more depth on some of his academic disputes and think the book is lacking for their omission. His disputes over gradualism with Gould, the units and levels of selection with Lewontin, arguments about group selection with EO Wilson were really what I hoped would be there in a bit more detail as they're fascinating episodes that remain unresolved I'd say!

It is difficult for me to read a basic autobiography about a person who usually brings me scientific thinking. I was not ready for childhood games, personal foibles, and interactions with friends. My mental set made the book less than satisfying.

Dawkins has most likely been pressured to write this book and to tell his own story rather than leave to others at later times. For that reason, it is useful.

After he is gone, people will be going through his papers and looking for shreds of information -- better to put his story out now. I would still have preferred more of his scientific wisdom.