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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through To What End?.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does Wilson say we discover when we link social sciences, biology, ethics and environmental policy?
(a) Fields have their own unique disciplines.
(b) Academic research involves similar intellectual work no matter the field.
(c) Each field bolsters reasoning in other fields.
(d) Fields need to have unified sources of funding.

3. Why does Wilson say that the concept of evolutionary progress is not easily defined?
(a) Because the goal of evolution is clear to individuals but not to the race as a whole.
(b) Because it is impossible to predict what conditions will be, and how they will require adaptation.
(c) Because evolution does not have a goal.
(d) Because the historical record is unclear, and because the present moment is still chaotic.

4. What does Edmund Wilson say cultures are made of?
(a) Linked compositions of myths and symbols.
(b) Groups of language users.
(c) The highest expressions of symbolic language in art.
(d) Genetic pools.

5. What field of questions does Wilson say remain unanswered?
(a) Questions about the effect of environment on individuals.
(b) Questions about the nature of matter.
(c) Questions about the mind's capabilities.
(d) Questions about things beyond our auditory range.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How do nerve cells in the brain connect?

3. How are scientific theories constructed and used within the scientific community, in Wilson's account?

4. What has research on the mind had to focus on?

5. What problem does Wilson identify in Freud's research on dreams?

(see the answer key)

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