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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many genes does the brain consist of?

2. What did Descartes argue for, in Wilson's account?

3. What two fields did Wilson connect in his theory of unified learning?

4. What decision was effectively made in human evolution as the brain found its present size?

5. How do nerve cells in the brain connect?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the relationship between chaos theory and consilience?

3. How would you describe Wilson's relationship with religion?

4. How does Wilson describe what it is possible to know about the brain?

5. How does Wilson use evolution as a parallel for consilience?

6. What consequence does Wilson hope consilience can have on public policy?

7. What does E.O. Wilson mean by the Ionian Enchantment?

8. What ancient sources does Wilson trace consilience back to?

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

10. How did Wilson arrive at his theory of consilience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is consilience a project for government planners or for university budgets? Is Wilson advocating a role for consilience in government or in education?

Essay Topic 2

Are 'epi-genetic rules' really just another way of saying complex social factors that have to be experienced individually? Does Wilson really evade the complexity and individuality of experience and sensation and language use?

Essay Topic 3

Where does the sense of proof reside in the body, or in experience? That is, how can a person tell the difference between a rational proof and a faulty proof, a faith-based proof or an irrational proof? If proof can be a final and complete experience, how does it distinguish between its sources? If proof is a temporary feeling that has to be reasserted--if it is a story that has to be retold again and again to be 'believed'--how does it account for the rest of experience, which tends to be chaotic and inscrutable, rather than clear and linear and rational?

(see the answer keys)

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