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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 does Wilson say we discover when we link social sciences, biology, ethics and environmental policy?
(a) Fields need to have unified sources of funding.
(b) Fields have their own unique disciplines.
(c) Academic research involves similar intellectual work no matter the field.
(d) Each field bolsters reasoning in other fields.

2. What idea of Locke's survived the Enlightenment into Romanticism?
(a) The idea mystical states.
(b) The idea of natural rights.
(c) The idea of inevitable progress.
(d) The idea of transcendent experiences.

3. What does Wilson mean by the Ionian Enchantment'?
(a) Belief in the multiplicity of forms.
(b) Belief in the unity of species.
(c) Belief in a transcendent spirit.
(d) Belief in a historical process.

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

5. What claims do philosophers make for the unification of knowledge?
(a) That scientific solutions are incomplete without the humanities.
(b) That it can bring more peace to political conflicts.
(c) That it can resolve issues the sciences cannot answer.
(d) That it can reduce the need for science.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does local positivism fail to distinguish between, in Wilson's narration?

3. What does science use as proof of a theory?

4. How does Wilson characterize the relationship between consilience and the material world?

5. What field does Wilson say philosophers and scientists should collaborate in?

(see the answer key)

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