1. It is now possible to summarize the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution.

2. Much of the vast neo-Darwinian literature is distressingly uncritical.

3. That, to a first approximation, is the neo-Darwinian account of how phenotypes evolve.

4. Contrary to most neo-Darwinian thinking at the moment, evolution is much more predictable than people think.

5. It seems to us to be no coincidence that neo-Darwinian rhetoric in the literature of experimental biology has cooled detectably in recent years.