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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Wilson call the discrete pieces of evidence?
(a) Nitty gritty facts.
(b) Researching molecules.
(c) The raw materials.
(d) Atomic evidence.

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

3. What is the relationship between politicians and intellectuals, in Wilson's account?
(a) They obfuscate each other's work.
(b) They have a mutually supportive role.
(c) They are not related.
(d) They misinterpret each other's work.

4. What is the goal, in Wilson's account, of molecular research on human cells?
(a) Discovering new life forms.
(b) Recreating human tissue from cell cultures.
(c) Producing organs.
(d) Curing cancer.

5. How does Wilson describe ant colonies?
(a) As interdependent systems.
(b) As superorganisms.
(c) As the sum of their constituent ants.
(d) As a kind of controlled chaos.

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

7. 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) Napoleon rose to power.
(c) The French went to war with Russia.
(d) 17,000 Frenchmen were killed.

8. What do the natural science stimulate, in Wilson's account?
(a) Other sciences.
(b) Religious controversy.
(c) Industry.
(d) Radicalism.

9. How are scientific theories constructed and used within the scientific community, in Wilson's account?
(a) They sketch but never define natural phenomena.
(b) They rely on intuition as much as observable results.
(c) They are made to define eternal laws.
(d) They can be discarded if disproved.

10. What is consilience?
(a) An underlying pattern that tends toward unification.
(b) A proposal for reorganizing departments of knowledge.
(c) A historical basis for unifying fields of study.
(d) An agreed approach to different subjects.

11. That scientific tools does Wilson credit with driving the age of scientific expansion?
(a) Generators, and the ability to create power.
(b) Hydraulics, and the ability to transfer power.
(c) Optics, and the ability to measure.
(d) Vaccines, and the ability to heal.

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

13. What two fields did Wilson connect in his theory of unified learning?
(a) Evolution and genetics.
(b) Philosophy and evolution.
(c) Epistemology and religion.
(d) Classification and evolution.

14. What did Laplace pioneer?
(a) The use of telescopes in astronomy.
(b) The use of statistics in politics.
(c) The notion of inalienable human rights.
(d) The use of probability in physics.

15. What does Wilson use the discussion of the unity of species to prepare for?
(a) A discussion of the unity of sciences.
(b) A discussion of the inevitability of progress.
(c) A discussion of the conscience and society.
(d) A discussion of the equality of genders.

Short Answer Questions

1. What might be a consequence of the unification of knowledge, in Wilson's account?

2. What religion was Wilson born into?

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

4. How can science help us, in Wilson's account?

5. What does Wilson credit animals with being able to see?

(see the answer keys)

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