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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Fitness of Human Nature.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Wilson use the discussion of the unity of species to prepare for?
(a) A discussion of the equality of genders.
(b) A discussion of the inevitability of progress.
(c) A discussion of the conscience and society.
(d) A discussion of the unity of sciences.

2. What does science use as proof of a theory?
(a) Phenomena witnessed by neutral observers.
(b) Repeated experiments.
(c) Natural laws.
(d) Hypotheses.

3. When does sleep occur, in molecular terms?
(a) When REM begins.
(b) When serotonin is released in the brain.
(c) When tryptophan is released in the brain.
(d) When certain chemicals decrease in the brain.

4. What power does Wilson attribute to men who control large amounts of territory?
(a) The power to determine the local economy.
(b) The power to command people's labor.
(c) The power to distribute genes widely.
(d) The power to create monopolies.

5. How does Wilson characterize the modern definition of dreams?
(a) Mystic connections to real events outside the body.
(b) Reconstitution of daily experiences in surreal visions.
(c) Psychic returns to the scenes of primal injuries.
(d) Visions charged by emotion and reorganized by information in memory.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Wilson say matters in science?

2. That scientific tools does Wilson credit with driving the age of scientific expansion?

3. Why does Wilson take up the example of dreams?

4. What is Wilson ultimately interested in producing with consilience?

5. What does Wilson say was the consequence of Robespierre's employment of the concept of the general will?

(see the answer key)

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