selfish gene hypothesis
the postulate that the sole purpose of genes is to replicate themselves and that genes are the overriding units of selection (i.e., the entities upon which natural selection operates). Hence, any mutation enhancing gene replication (and transmission) would be selected for. Many contemporary evolutionary biologists argue that this view oversimplifies the relationship between genes and organisms and is extreme in its notion that genes consistently override selection on the organism or population level. They accept, however, the principal notion of gene replication as consistent with a number of processes in evolution. [proposed by British biologist Richard Dawkins (1941– ) in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene]