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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. Einstein recognized what in his discoveries, in Wilson's account?

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

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

4. What does Wilson say was the consequence of Robespierre's employment of the concept of the general will?

5. How does Wilson describe the strength of the French Revolution?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the modern theory of dreams explain something like the presence and significance of snakes in dreams, in Wilson's account?

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

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

4. In what way does Wilson distinguish between evolutionary progress and consilience?

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

6. How has postmodernism affected Wilson's consilience?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The model for scientific work is based on hypothesis and testing, with each discovery creating the need for further testing and further hypotheses and publications--but Wilson describes scientific knowledge as settled and established. Is Wilson overlooking the uncertainty in scientific work and generalizing the results? Does the scientific method itself foster consilience or undermine it?

Essay Topic 2

Part of Wilson's argument about the value of science is the technology that science has required for its own purposes, or produced for consumers, but applied science seems to be different than the pure science Wilson is talking about throughout 'Consilience', especially when the perpetual drive to innovate in business has required the policy of planned obsolescence, where everything technological is designed to be superseded by new products in the future. Does this present a problem for consilience, or is this beyond the scope of Wilson's argument? How do science's industrial uses, which seem to tend toward dispersion, relate with the possibility of science's unification?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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