The Blind Watchmaker

Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design

By: Richard Dawkins

Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward

Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered - is the blind watchmaker in nature.

©1986, 1987, 1996 Richard Dawkins (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"As readable and vigorous a defense of Darwinism as has been published since 1859. ( The Economist)

"The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years." (E. O. Wilson, Professor in Entomology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University)

“Dawkins’s explanation of the evolutionary process continues to be timely and revelatory…This dual reading is an interesting model for a scientific text. It helps to clarify and emphasize points… this is a commendable production, and an excellent primer on how evolution works.” ( AudoFile)

Richard Dawkins is an amazing thinker

Dawkins writes and performs this subject eloquently. This is the second audiobook I have of his, The Selfish Gene being the first. Both are works of art, I recommend for anyone who has interest in what Darswinism actually is and wants a 20th century explanation. The thought experiments brought out by Dawkins are what keep me coming back for more and more. His writing style, partnered with the interesting subject matter, topped off by a magnificent unabridged performance make this worth listen to.

Brilliant exposition of Darwinism.

Though his examples are somewhat dated in the sense that newer discoveries have allowed for fresher examples, they are none the less still revealing and accesible helping to flesh out the explanation of not only how Darwinism makes sense of biological data but is so far the only method man has thought of that can explain the emergence of complexity.

Great advocacy, no cigar

While I loved the book and got a firm handle on what Darwinism is all about, the idea that throwing random mutations against a wall of material circumstance can account for our world, is a thesis I can easily resist.
It reminds me of Knuth’s example of how to build a random number generator using random algorithms. (Super colosal random number generator. Viol 2 Alf K, intro)
Things are not that clear or well behaved!

Come on Richard, You're better than this

Really? You switch between You and Lalla just to prove what? It's confusing, that's a), b) it takes the focus away, for a good part of the book and c) what is it? Some kind of LGBTi SJW Woman Equality BS? You're an evolutionary biologist ffs, not Karen.

1.5 speed

Rough at first until I put it on 1.5
Then excellent

Apparently I need 15 words to leave a review
Why doesn’t the world favor brevity?

A great update for Darwin's Origin of Species.

Dawkins dose an excellent job explaining some of the more complex ideas and arguments of evolution. This book gives modern answers to modern questions that did not exist in Darwin's time.

A true Dawkins

If you like nuanced and precise reasoning this book is s perfect match. Add to this Dawkins beautiful and well modulated performance, you have full house. I have one absolutely minor complaint. The chapter about punctuated equilibrium would have benefitted from a rewrite. His conflict with Gould and Eldredge is probably the source of the tension I sensed in that chapter.

A Book for Specialists

Blind Watchmaker was read by the author and his spouse—wonderful readers both. The book appealed to me because I had enjoyed The God Delusion and hoped for a similarly enjoyable and educational experience. I had also read The Selfish Gene, which seemed to me harder to read than Delusion. Watchmaker turned out to more like Selfish than Delusion. All good books, but if you don’t come to Watchmaker and Selfish with a burning desire to understand Darwin, you may, by the end of your reading, grow numb, as I did, with the details.

By way of pointing out the elements I found most enjoyable in Watchmaker:

1) The author’s reasoning skills are impressive. He has thought and researched deeply about every subject presented. Dawkins plainly announces that he means to convince his reader that Darwinian evolution presents the only rational explanation of the world’s complexity. Dawkins is anything but dispassionate.
2) Dawkins often presents a view of things that seems to me non-intuitive, yet correct. A brief example: He states that cheetahs are the enemies of gazelles and that gazelles are the enemies of cheetahs. My reaction is, No they’re not. Gazelles don’t hunt cheetahs! Dawkins goes on to say that, from the point of view of the cheetah, if the gazelle can out run the cheetah, the cheetah starves to death. The success of the gazelle, therefore, brings about the extinction of the cheetah, which is the cheetah’s definition of “enemy.” Another: Are cows the enemy of grass? Well, yes, I suppose. In fact, no. Grass has a more formidable enemy than cows—weeds are that enemy. Cows eat grass, but also eat weeds. Voila. I hadn’t thought of that. And on and on.
3 The description of a bat’s ability to hunt and navigate is worth the price of the book. And then Dawkins postulates humans from the bat’s point of view. Almost laugh-out-loud funny.

I read Delusion when it was first published in 2008—the first of his books I had read. Perhaps it too had its more detailed elements, now not recalled, elements that I might have found tiresome—not that the fault was with Dawkins, but rather with a reader, not so interested in the details as he might or should be.

So, a very good book, although not one to be enjoyed in its entirety with a merely passing interest in evolution.

Great Information

I have read the God Delusion and The Greatest Show on Earth. Professor Dawkins referenced this book and I wanted to listen to it on my commutes to work to further my understanding of evolution. This work has great information and good flow. I usually don't like when there is more then one narrator but this works out very well as there are times he is quoting something and then the narrator switches. This makes it easier to know this is occurring when you hear the voice change. Both narrators are wonderful to listen to.

GREAT LOGICAL READ

For all the creationists out there and for smart people who want a good read, this should be mandatory in high school science classes.