View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was it about armies that Wilson was struck by?
(a) How they were close brotherhoods.
(b) How they were subsidized by communities or nations.
(c) How they were supported by an entire society.
(d) How they were organized.

2. What does status give a man power to do, in Edmund Wilson's account?
(a) Have more wives.
(b) Have more money.
(c) Have more influence.
(d) Have more offspring.

3. How does Wilson describe ant colonies?
(a) As the sum of their constituent ants.
(b) As interdependent systems.
(c) As a kind of controlled chaos.
(d) As superorganisms.

4. How many cells comprise the brain?
(a) No one knows.
(b) 100 million.
(c) 1 trillion.
(d) 100 billion.

5. What does Wilson credit animals with being able to see?
(a) The world beyond the spectrum of our vision.
(b) The present moment.
(c) The urgency of nature.
(d) The causes beneath their actions.

Short Answer Questions

1. How can scientists monitor the working brain, in Wilson's account?

2. How would you describe the relationship between Descartes' theories and modern science of the brain?

3. After considering all the different contexts for ants' communication, how does Wilson describe their form of communication?

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

5. Where is the seat of consciousness in the brain?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 268 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample