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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. What would need to be true before we could establish the goals and progress of evolutionary processes, in Wilson's account?

2. How are scientific theories constructed and used within the scientific community, in Wilson's account?

3. What does Wilson say that humans are incapable of seeing?

4. What field of questions does Wilson say remain unanswered?

5. What idea of Locke's survived the Enlightenment into Romanticism?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Wilson's theory a consequence of evolutionary theory?

2. How do anatomical limitations affect our science, in Wilson's account?

3. What is the modern understanding of dreams?

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

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

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

7. Why is consilience especially important in studying the mind?

8. How does Wilson describe the mindset necessary to be a scientist?

9. What is reductionism, and what makes it useful for science?

10. How would you describe Condorcet's influence on Wilson's idea 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

Wilson writes that economic models of culture can change variables, but keep the remainder--the unique thing that is the culture itself--constant. What is it about economic that Wilson says makes it better suited to our times than sociology and anthropology? What would superiority mean if Wilson were the dean of a university, with power to determine funding for departments?

Essay Topic 3

What are the reasons that the sciences have resisted the urge to unification expressed in consilience? How are the sciences organized like trades, and how have individuals staked claims on funding or authority that would prevent consilience?

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