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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What explanation does Wilson offer for incest taboos?
(a) Incest creates unrest in a culture.
(b) Incest undermines primogeniture.
(c) Incest relationships create genetic defects.
(d) Incest predisposes cultures to avoid war.

2. What does Edmund Wilson say is the logic behind consilience?
(a) Interdependence of art and humanities.
(b) Interpretation of art by science.
(c) Mutual interpretation of arts and sciences.
(d) Generation of science by art.

3. What role does Wilson ascribe to human nature?
(a) Changing how genes create environments.
(b) Connecting genes to nature.
(c) Changing what genetic expressions mean.
(d) Changing how language expresses genetics.

4. What does Edmund Wilson credit human nature with altering?
(a) Epigenetic rules.
(b) Technological influences.
(c) The environment.
(d) Language.

5. Where does Edmund Wilson say consilience is beneficial?
(a) In biology and ethics.
(b) In humanities and natural sciences.
(c) In all areas of learning.
(d) In history and technology.

6. How much will sea levels theoretically rise if the ice caps melt?
(a) 30 cm.
(b) 60 cm.
(c) 90 cm.
(d) 120 cm.

7. Who does Wilson offer as evidence of thinkers affected by the concept of natural rights?
(a) Benjamin Franklin.
(b) Thomas Jefferson.
(c) Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
(d) Robespierre.

8. What do modern technologies give humans the ability to choose?
(a) The color of children's skin.
(b) The genetic superiority of a race.
(c) The shape of their children's heads.
(d) The direction of human evolution.

9. What power does Wilson attribute to men who control large amounts of territory?
(a) The power to determine the local economy.
(b) The power to command people's labor.
(c) The power to distribute genes widely.
(d) The power to create monopolies.

10. What does Edmund Wilson say the arts ultimately create?
(a) Science.
(b) Consilience.
(c) Religion.
(d) Rituals and consistency.

11. How does postmodern influence portray existence?
(a) As individual.
(b) As chaotic.
(c) As interdependent.
(d) As communal.

12. What does Edmund Wilson say cultures are made of?
(a) The highest expressions of symbolic language in art.
(b) Genetic pools.
(c) Groups of language users.
(d) Linked compositions of myths and symbols.

13. What does Wilson call sociology?
(a) The study of conflict between societies.
(b) The study of complex societies.
(c) The study of society.
(d) The study of simple society.

14. What did all Enlightenment thinkers have in common, according to Wilson?
(a) Faith in God.
(b) Literary methods.
(c) Scientific methods.
(d) A sense of historical purpose.

15. What does natural selection provide for a species?
(a) More diverse genetic options.
(b) Fewer dominant individuals.
(c) New genetic combinations.
(d) More mating possibilities.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the empiricist view ethical reasoning?

2. Where does postmodernism fail to accord with science, in Edmund Wilson's account?

3. How does Wilson describe the difference between gifted and less-gifted artists' brains?

4. Where do tangible phenomena evolve, according to consilience?

5. Which social science does Edmund Wilson say is best situated to bridge the gap between natural science and social science?

(see the answer keys)

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