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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 is the relationship between politicians and intellectuals, in Wilson's account?
(a) They obfuscate each other's work.
(b) They are not related.
(c) They have a mutually supportive role.
(d) They misinterpret each other's work.

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

3. What is the social cost of violating the incest taboo?
(a) Legal punishment.
(b) Disenfranchisement.
(c) Failure to adapt and survive.
(d) Unfit offspring.

4. Where did Wilson develop the idea of unified learning?
(a) During his childhood.
(b) In his research on ants.
(c) During his science studies.
(d) In his writings on religion.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of progress does Wilson see in the history of life on earth?

2. What does science seek, in Wilson's account?

3. What was it about armies that Wilson was struck by?

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

5. What decision was effectively made in human evolution as the brain found its present size?

(see the answer key)

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