This was the basic thesis forwarded by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene so it has been a popular view for several decades now. Yes, it is an important evolutionary perspective, as long as we remember that selection occurs on different biological levels as well.What are your thoughts about Genes and not individual species or organisms as the fundamental unit for analyzing and understanding evolution?
I believe this approach opens up a whole new perspective where understanding any given behavior becomes more straight forward!
I was inspired into thinking on these lines after watching Mr. Dawkins documentary on the same. Yes, he was and is the foremost proponent of this idea but I feel we can improvise and deduce a set of laws (framework) that can explain evolution better and extend it to non-living processes too! My thoughts are still vague on this though!