What Does It Mean?

Reading the first few chapters of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, there were many words he describes that you need to know to be able to understand the book. A few of those words, some described by the author himself, are:

• Stable (thing): "A collection of atoms that is permanent enough or common enough to deserve a name. It may be a unique collection of atoms, such as the Matterhorn, that lasts long enough to be worth naming." (Page 12)

• Class (of entities): "Such as raindrops, that come into existence at a sufficiently high rate to deserve a collective name, even if one of them is short-lived." (Page 12)

• Selfishness: Increasing one's welfare at it's own interest to achieve one's goals. ( Kind of parafrazed by me, from page 4).

• Alturism: The opposite of selfishness. Increasing the welfare of the rest of the group to help oneself achieve one's goals. ( Kind of parafrazed by me, from page 4).

• Welfare: "Defined as 'chances of survival', even if the effect on actual life and death prospects is so small as to seem negligible." (Page 4)

• Survival Machine: "It embraces all animals, plants, bacteria and viruses"(Page 21) I would add to it 'all living species that have managed to survive over time'.