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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 does science try to integrate, in Wilson's account?

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

3. Wilson says that biological classification is based on the "Origin of Species" and what?

4. What effect does Wilson say evolution had?

5. Why have scientific models of the brain failed to explain consciousness?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How would you describe Rousseau's influence on Wilson's idea of consilience?

3. What does the term "consilience" mean?

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

5. What is the modern understanding of dreams?

6. How has postmodernism affected Wilson's consilience?

7. How does Wilson offer ants as a metaphor for consilience?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How would you respond to a reviewer who wrote that after Wilson leaves his discussion of biology and reductionism, which were his fields of training, he loses authority, and ventures into fields he is not expert in, where his ideas about art and religion are off-base, and his argument about objectivity is tautological. Is this a fair critique?

Essay Topic 3

What is the difference between consilience and wisdom?

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