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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Natural Sciences.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is reductionism?
(a) The analysis of components of a system or problem.
(b) The analysis of the interrelation of all the parts of a system or problem.
(c) The use of abstractions and generalizations to explain phenomena.
(d) The study of the context for a system or problem.

2. Einstein recognized what in his discoveries, in Wilson's account?
(a) The unity of complex phenomena.
(b) The unity of branches of knowledge.
(c) The centrality of math in knowledge.
(d) The impossibility of any unified theories.

3. How can science help us, in Wilson's account?
(a) Science can show us how our impressions are created by our feelings.
(b) Science can expand the limits of what we can see.
(c) Science can reveal the extent of human powerlessness.
(d) Science can give us better stories to tell about psychological nature.

4. What two fields did Wilson connect in his theory of unified learning?
(a) Philosophy and evolution.
(b) Classification and evolution.
(c) Epistemology and religion.
(d) Evolution and genetics.

5. What is consilience?
(a) A historical basis for unifying fields of study.
(b) A proposal for reorganizing departments of knowledge.
(c) An agreed approach to different subjects.
(d) An underlying pattern that tends toward unification.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Condorcet pioneer?

2. What does Wilson say that humans are incapable of seeing?

3. How are scientific theories constructed and used within the scientific community, in Wilson's account?

4. Where does Wilson propose to test the benefit of consilience?

5. The idea that water was the unifying medium for all nature is the center of which philosophical view?

(see the answer key)

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