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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 do cultures use from the mind, in Wilson's account?
(a) Humanities.
(b) Myths.
(c) Science.
(d) Narratives.

2. How does Edmund Wilson define ethics?
(a) As a set of universal laws.
(b) As a set of unspoken prohibitions.
(c) As a code of principles.
(d) As a series of taboos.

3. Where does postmodernism fail to accord with science, in Edmund Wilson's account?
(a) In refusing to accept statistical modeling of individual behavior.
(b) In describing the brain as chaotic.
(c) In describing the arts as strictly cultural.
(d) In rooting creativity in social behavior.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Wilson offer as evidence of cross-cultural epi-genetic rules?

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

3. What are epigenetic rules?

4. What does Edmund Wilson say the arts ultimately create?

5. What is the problem with sociology, in Edmund Wilson's estimation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What social problems does Wilson say are caused by failures in social sciences?

2. What is the consilient view of religious ethics?

3. How do patterns in mental development connect genes to culture?

4. How does Wilson describe the universality of art?

5. What does Wilson say is the relationship between human genetics and the development of culture?

6. How does art look through the gene-culture evolution paradigm Wilson offers?

7. What is the fundamental assumption behind consilience?

8. What ethical perspective does Wilson call the Transcendental view?

9. What does Wilson say the liberal arts should address?

10. How do social factors influence genetic distribution?

(see the answer keys)

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