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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What political movement did Condorcet inspire?
(a) The abolition of slavery in the New World.
(b) The French Revolution.
(c) The American Revolution.
(d) The abolition of slavery in French colonies.

2. How can scientists monitor the working brain, in Wilson's account?
(a) In limited experiments.
(b) In snapshots.
(c) In behavior.
(d) In real-time analysis.

3. What does Wilson say matters in science?
(a) Publications.
(b) Final results.
(c) Paradigm shifts.
(d) Hypothesis.

4. 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.

5. Why does Wilson take up the example of dreams?
(a) To demonstrate man's different ways of knowing.
(b) To demonstrate the correct way to analyze brain chemicals.
(c) To show that Freud's unscientific methods make his assumptions wrong.
(d) To show that Freud discovered things he didn't understand himself.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the relationship between politicians and intellectuals, in Wilson's account?

2. How does Wilson characterize the current state of knowledge?

3. Where did Wilson develop the idea of unified learning?

4. What event marks the end of the Enlightenment, in Wilson's account?

5. What does Wilson say we discover when we link social sciences, biology, ethics and environmental policy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Wilson offer as an alternative to scientific knowledge and consilience?

2. How does Wilson offer the physical sciences as a metaphor for consilience?

3. What is the modern understanding of dreams?

4. How would you describe Condorcet's influence on Wilson's idea of consilience?

5. How does science impact the arts, in E.O. Wilson's account?

6. How does Wilson offer dreams as an example of the need for consilience?

7. What is the relationship between complexity theory and consilience?

8. What does consilience provide as an educational policy?

9. How does consilience aim to resolve political problems?

10. How has postmodernism affected Wilson's consilience?

(see the answer keys)

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