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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What was it about armies that Wilson was struck by?
(a) How they were organized.
(b) How they were subsidized by communities or nations.
(c) How they were supported by an entire society.
(d) How they were close brotherhoods.

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

5. What does Wilson say the standards that measure scientific knowledge should be based on?
(a) Something real.
(b) Theories.
(c) Hypotheses.
(d) Mathematics.

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

7. When did the Enlightenment end, in Wilson's account?
(a) 1789.
(b) 1776.
(c) 1742.
(d) 1794.

8. How can science help us, in Wilson's account?
(a) Science can show us how our impressions are created by our feelings.
(b) Science can reveal the extent of human powerlessness.
(c) Science can expand the limits of what we can see.
(d) Science can give us better stories to tell about psychological nature.

9. Wilson says that passion and emotion are both linked to what?
(a) Reason.
(b) Sleep and arousal.
(c) Eating and moving.
(d) Primitive desires.

10. How does Wilson characterize the current state of knowledge?
(a) Irreconcilable.
(b) Interconnected.
(c) Fragmented.
(d) Unified.

11. How did Wilson react against the religion he inherited?
(a) He rejected literal interpretation of the Bible.
(b) He maintained his faith in spite of his scientific research.
(c) He embraced it but insisted on the ability to hold exclusive beliefs.
(d) He tried to reconcile his science with his faith.

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

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

14. Why have scientific models of the brain failed to explain consciousness?
(a) Because consciousness is always shifting and cannot be modeled.
(b) Because living and reproducing do not require self-understanding.
(c) Because models of brain activity do not replicate the sense of 'being there' inside the brain.
(d) Because scientists are limited in the experiments they can perform on human beings.

15. What kind of progress does Wilson see in the history of life on earth?
(a) He sees the role of blind chance marring the evolutionary record.
(b) He sees a punctuated equilibrium.
(c) He sees a tendency toward complexity.
(d) He sees a tendency toward adaptation to environment.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do nerve cells in the brain send signals along?

2. What did the idea of intellectual unity foster in the Enlightenment?

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

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

5. What was Wilson's relationship with the term 'Consilience'?

(see the answer keys)

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