View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What field does culture need to be linked with, in order to be explained, according to Wilson?
(a) Natural sciences.
(b) Religion.
(c) Language.
(d) Economics.

2. Why does Edmund Wilson say that human existence in the future will depend on ethics?
(a) Because evolution favors contract formation.
(b) Because people will only work together once they can frame the problems.
(c) Because the alternative to self-extinction is preserving the others around the self.
(d) Because empathy will prevent exploitation.

3. How do hereditarians see the evolution of culture?
(a) As a change in brain chemistry.
(b) As an emergence of the world spirit.
(c) As the result of environmental factors.
(d) As the result of nature.

4. What are epigenetic rules?
(a) The process of selecting which genes are most desirable in an environment.
(b) The language in which culture expresses itself.
(c) The cultural effect on genetic expression.
(d) Influences that affect the expression of genes.

5. What does Edmund Wilson say is the purpose of the social science?
(a) To provide a way to control the future.
(b) To Keep suppressed cultures alive.
(c) To reveal the hidden meanings in people's actions.
(d) To demonstrate how to conquer other cultures.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do nurturists see the evolution of culture?

2. How does Edmund Wilson define ethics?

3. What does the concept of God do, in Edmund Wilson's account?

4. What is the weakness of the current era of economics, in Edmund Wilson's account?

5. What does Edmund Wilson say the arts ultimately create?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does ethics come from, in E.O. Wilson's account?

2. What is the difference between nurturists and hereditarians in describing how culture evolves?

3. What are the two branches of anthropology Wilson describes, and what question does he say they both fail to answer?

4. How do patterns in mental development connect genes to culture?

5. How does postmodern art resist consilience, in E.O. Wilson's account?

6. In what way are epi-genetic rules cross-cultural?

7. What is the fundamental assumption behind consilience?

8. How do social factors influence genetic distribution?

9. What social science does Wilson credit with coming closest to consilience?

10. What threats to contemporary culture does Wilson describe, and how is consilience useful in answering them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 817 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample