Summary. Some Tentative Conclusions

Abstract

We set out in the hope of understanding the “genetics of the evolutionary process” (Dobzhansky 1970). We have obviously got somewhere; nevertheless the reader may feel a sense of puzzlement. To what extent have we achieved our objective? G. H. Hardy, to whom our subject is so much indebted for a clear start, was accustomed to award marks in recognition of a wide variety of human qualities, admirable or otherwise, including intellectual achievement. How many out of ten might he fairly have given in our case?

Biologists work very close to the frontier between bewilderment and understanding. Sir Peter Medawar, Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought (1969)