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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who proposed the idea of unity of species that follow a few simple laws?
(a) Solon.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Plato.
(d) Thales of Miletus.

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

3. What is reductionism?
(a) The use of abstractions and generalizations to explain phenomena.
(b) The analysis of the interrelation of all the parts of a system or problem.
(c) The study of the context for a system or problem.
(d) The analysis of components of a system or problem.

4. 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) Fields need to have unified sources of funding.
(d) Each field bolsters reasoning in other fields.

5. Why does Wilson say that the concept of evolutionary progress is not easily defined?
(a) Because the historical record is unclear, and because the present moment is still chaotic.
(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 goal of evolution is clear to individuals but not to the race as a whole.

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

7. How does consilience help us understand organisms?
(a) By reconstructing them from cells.
(b) By seeing their evolution.
(c) By examining their environment.
(d) By examining their organization.

8. What does Wilson say was the consequence of Robespierre's employment of the concept of the general will?
(a) The French undermined their own revolution.
(b) 17,000 Frenchmen were killed.
(c) The French went to war with Russia.
(d) Napoleon rose to power.

9. Where does Wilson propose to test the benefit of consilience?
(a) In epistemology.
(b) In religion.
(c) In the history of knowledge.
(d) In social sciences and humanities.

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

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

12. What subject would Wilson like to see more of in undergraduate education?
(a) Philosophy.
(b) Humanities.
(c) Sciences.
(d) Arts.

13. What do the laws of physics transcend, in Wilson's account?
(a) Cultures.
(b) Mythologies.
(c) Galaxies.
(d) Languages.

14. How does Wilson explain the ideal scientist's work ethic?
(a) Think like eagles, work like ants.
(b) Think like whales, work like minnows.
(c) Think like children, work like fathers.
(d) Think like poets, work like bookkeepers.

15. According to complexity theory, what is the result of living on the edge of chaos?
(a) Extinction.
(b) Evolution.
(c) Experimentation.
(d) Escalation.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was complexity theory formed?

2. How has the postmodern fragmentation of knowledge affected consilience, in Wilson's account??

3. What idea of Locke's survived the Enlightenment into Romanticism?

4. What qualities of mind drove the techno-scientific age?

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

(see the answer keys)

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