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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What qualities of mind drove the techno-scientific age?
(a) Justice and equality.
(b) Compassion and empathy.
(c) Mathematics and industrialism.
(d) Curiosity and creativity.

3. Where do the images of snakes in dreams likely come from, in Wilson's account?
(a) The Bible story of the garden of Eden.
(b) A widespread fear of snakes.
(c) The mystic significance of snakes.
(d) The intuition of subterranean experience.

4. What force did John Locke believe in, in Wilson's account?
(a) The damaging force of society.
(b) The nurturing force of the environment.
(c) The civilizing force of discipline.
(d) The therapeutic force of society.

5. What does Wilson distinguish between?
(a) Science and religion.
(b) Science and ethics.
(c) Religion and myth.
(d) Science and pseudo-science.

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

7. What do nerve cells in the brain send signals along?
(a) Neutrons.
(b) Neurons.
(c) Axons.
(d) Synapses.

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

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

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

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

12. What does Wilson say evidence from the natural sciences says about Enlightenment thinkers?
(a) They made correct assumptions about the material world.
(b) They made correct assumptions about the nature of divinity.
(c) They made correct assumptions about the evolution of species.
(d) They made correct assumptions about the presence of dinosaurs.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The idea that water was the unifying medium for all nature is the center of which philosophical view?

2. What does science try to integrate, in Wilson's account?

3. What does Wilson say was the consequence of Robespierre's employment of the concept of the general will?

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

5. When was complexity theory formed?

(see the answer keys)

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