@memester,
Dawkins sez
Quote: The more likely a length of chromosome is to be split by crossing-over, or altered by mutations of various kinds, the less it qualifies to be called a gene in the sense I am using the term.
* HOWEVER *
If there is no mutation or alteration, there is no allele
no alleles means no allele change in populations. not for fully qualifying genes.
* ERGO *
No Genetical theory of Evolution by Natural Selection on Mutation ( on the not existing mutant phenotype ).
so I think this also qualifies as Dawkins at work with childish assumptions.
or childish refusal to admit when he's been corrected.
Quote:Genes are competing directly with their alleles for survival, since their alleles in the gene pool are rivals for their slot on the chromosomes of future generations. Any gene that behaves in such a way as to increase its own survival chances in the gene pool at the expense of its alleles will, by definition, tautologously, tend to survive. The gene is the basic unit of selfishness.
The "basic unit of selfishness", as he calls it, his "gene", is precisely that "gene" in the sense of "least likely to be split or altered"...in other words, the gene that does not have any such allele in the first place.
