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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Edmund Wilson say that human existence in the future will depend on ethics?
(a) Because people will only work together once they can frame the problems.
(b) Because the alternative to self-extinction is preserving the others around the self.
(c) Because evolution favors contract formation.
(d) Because empathy will prevent exploitation.

2. Which ocean is still experiencing increasing yields?
(a) Atlantic Ocean.
(b) Southern Ocean.
(c) Pacific Ocean.
(d) Indian Ocean.

3. How has the postmodern fragmentation of knowledge affected consilience, in Wilson's account??
(a) It has not been useful.
(b) It has generated unprecedented discussions between disciplines.
(c) It has created the conditions for unification.
(d) It has opened new fields.

4. What can biological research do for complexity theory, in Wilson's account?
(a) Demonstrate how many variables influence a cell's functioning.
(b) Demonstrate how the cell has adapted to the numerous variables that influence its functions.
(c) Demonstrate how the cell is a unified organism.
(d) Demonstrate how layers of complexity interact.

5. When was Condorcet born?
(a) 1743.
(b) 1776.
(c) 1789.
(d) 1752.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where do science and the arts both originate, according to Wilson?

2. What does natural consilience connect?

3. Wilson defines culture in terms of what?

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

5. How many billion people live in absolute poverty, at the time of Wilson's writing?

(see the answer key)

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