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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 kind of progress does Wilson see in the history of life on earth?
(a) He sees a punctuated equilibrium.
(b) He sees a tendency toward complexity.
(c) He sees the role of blind chance marring the evolutionary record.
(d) He sees a tendency toward adaptation to environment.

2. What claims do philosophers make for the unification of knowledge?
(a) That scientific solutions are incomplete without the humanities.
(b) That it can bring more peace to political conflicts.
(c) That it can reduce the need for science.
(d) That it can resolve issues the sciences cannot answer.

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

4. What did Condorcet pioneer?
(a) The application of math in social science.
(b) The notion of innate human rights.
(c) The application of statistics to politics.
(d) The development of statistical models for economics.

5. When did the Enlightenment end, in Wilson's account?
(a) 1789.
(b) 1776.
(c) 1742.
(d) 1794.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Descartes argue for, in Wilson's account?

2. What would need to be true before we could establish the goals and progress of evolutionary processes, in Wilson's account?

3. What event marks the end of the Enlightenment, in Wilson's account?

4. What do the laws of physics transcend, in Wilson's account?

5. How did Locke distinguish between culture and history?

(see the answer key)

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