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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are the nerve cells in the brain called?
(a) Axons.
(b) Protons.
(c) Dendrites.
(d) Neurons.

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) Descartes sense of consciousness' abstraction has been embraced by scientists who practice consilience.
(c) Descartes' dualism has been rejected.
(d) The molecular work on the brain has completely surpassed anything Descartes theorized.

3. What methods did Descartes use in his work?
(a) Hypothesis and experimentation.
(b) Induction and synthesis.
(c) Deduction and analysis.
(d) Experiential learning and induction.

4. In Wilson's account, why did the French Revolution fail?
(a) Because of international fear of the spread of revolution.
(b) Because the efficiency of the military in the Reign of Terror allowed Napoleon's rise.
(c) Because of the intellectual opposition to the tyranny of the revolution.
(d) Because of the excesses of tyrants and terrorists.

5. When does sleep occur, in molecular terms?
(a) When certain chemicals decrease in the brain.
(b) When REM begins.
(c) When serotonin is released in the brain.
(d) When tryptophan is released in the brain.

6. How does Wilson characterize the relationship between ecology and ethics?
(a) By valuing previously unvalued phenomena, ecology develops its own unique ethics.
(b) Without tangible laws of ethics, ecology is always an approximate science, ethically.
(c) By studying how people assign values, we find that ecology has always had an ethical scale of value.
(d) Without analysis in ecology, there is little basis for making ethical claims.

7. Why does Wilson take up the example of dreams?
(a) To show that Freud discovered things he didn't understand himself.
(b) To show that Freud's unscientific methods make his assumptions wrong.
(c) To demonstrate the correct way to analyze brain chemicals.
(d) To demonstrate man's different ways of knowing.

8. How much does the human brain weigh on average?
(a) Five pounds.
(b) Four pounds.
(c) Three pounds.
(d) Two pounds.

9. How does consilience work?
(a) By providing different models for the same behavior.
(b) By providing a context and a practical consequence to each scientific study.
(c) By breaking things down and putting them back together.
(d) By making science relevant to the humanities.

10. Whose ideas influenced the formation of the French slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"?
(a) Condorcet.
(b) Locke.
(c) Rousseau.
(d) de Sade.

11. When was complexity theory formed?
(a) The 1970s.
(b) The 1950s.
(c) The 1920s.
(d) The 1890s.

12. What was Wilson's relationship with the term 'Consilience'?
(a) He coined it.
(b) He discovered it in his research.
(c) He revitalized it.
(d) It came to him in a dream.

13. What purpose does Wilson say dreams serve?
(a) Improving responses relevant to survival.
(b) Giving the self access to the collective unconscious.
(c) Developing the soul through cathexes.
(d) Telling the conscious self about the doings of its unconscious.

14. What has research on the mind had to focus on?
(a) The working brain.
(b) The soul.
(c) Behavior.
(d) The spirit.

15. What does science try to integrate, in Wilson's account?
(a) Elements of systems.
(b) The foundations of different sciences.
(c) The history of science.
(d) Systems of explaining phenomena.

Short Answer Questions

1. What philosophical assumption underlay the notion that evolution followed simple laws?

2. What does local positivism fail to distinguish between, in Wilson's narration?

3. What does Wilson say the standards that measure scientific knowledge should be based on?

4. Where did Wilson develop the idea of unified learning?

5. What is the difference between primary and secondary emotions?

(see the answer keys)

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