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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Wilson characterize the relationship between consilience and the material world?
(a) He says that consilience is a sublime concept that can never be presented in fact.
(b) He says it is implicit.
(c) He says that consilience can only be seen through a philosophical lens.
(d) He says it can only be known through language.

2. What might be a consequence of the unification of knowledge, in Wilson's account?
(a) A new sense of what divides mankind against itself.
(b) New fields of exploration.
(c) A better understanding of ourselves.
(d) Streamlined education.

3. How would you describe the relationship between Descartes' theories and modern science of the brain?
(a) The molecular work on the brain has completely surpassed anything Descartes theorized.
(b) Modern science has centered on the role of doubt in awareness.
(c) Descartes sense of consciousness' abstraction has been embraced by scientists who practice consilience.
(d) Descartes' dualism has been rejected.

4. Under what circumstances are theories accepted universally?
(a) When a hypothesis explains phenomena.
(b) When evidence is supported by interlocking theories.
(c) When experimental data can be confirmed.
(d) When a theory promises to explain phenomena.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Wilson say that the concept of evolutionary progress is not easily defined?

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

3. What qualities of mind drove the techno-scientific age?

4. When did the Enlightenment end, in Wilson's account?

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

(see the answer key)

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