Dawkinsian

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adjective

Relating to the "selfish gene" view on evolution as proposed by Richard Dawkins.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

adjectiveDawkinsian (comparative more Dawkinsian, superlative most Dawkinsian)

comparative more Dawkinsian · superlative most Dawkinsian

  1. Relating to the "selfish gene" view on evolution as proposed by Richard Dawkins.

    It is not entirely clear how much the Dawkinsian perspective has to do with the issues of present concern.

    2002, John Dupré, Humans and Other Animals, page 162
    3 more examples

    In an essay entitled 'Selfish Genes and Social Darwinism' (1983, p.366) she argues that 'sociobiological thinking, especially in its Dawkinsian form, actually reinforces Social Darwinism, both by its language and by some of its substance'.

    1985, Tony Solomonides, Les Levidow, Compulsive Technology: Computers as Culture, page 42

    In two papers, I argued that differential selection ought to favor more nearly decomposable or more quasi-independent phenotypes, so that the evolution of or selection for quasi-independence paradoxically meant that if a Williamsian or Dawkinsian genic selectionist picture is true, it is true because selection at higher levels produced it!

    1993, Werner Callebaut, Taking the Naturalistic Turn, Or How Real Philosophy of Science Is Done, page 162

    The suggestion that Rolston diverges from Darwinism could also be directed at Ward when he seeks to supplement Dawkinsian, gene-machine-like, accounts of evolution by reference to a guiding purpose.

    2006, Robin Attfield, Creation, Evolution and Meaning, page 145
  2. Stridently atheist, like Richard Dawkins.

    […] two million people convinced and converted to Dawkinsian atheistic humanism.

    2010, Amarnath Amarasingam, Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal, page 121
    1 more example

    From that moment, I became an atheist — but we still remained best friends (probably because neither of us tried to convert the other). Let me state right now that I was never Dawkinsian in either temperament or zeal.

    2012, Keith Allen, The God Conclusion, page 54

Origin

From Dawkins + -ian, after Richard Dawkins.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Dawkinsian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dawkinsian

MLA

“Dawkinsian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dawkinsian. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Dawkinsian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dawkinsian.

Source: Dawkinsian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.