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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 Wilson say was the consequence of Robespierre's employment of the concept of the general will?

2. What do the laws of physics transcend, in Wilson's account?

3. What subject would Wilson like to see more of in undergraduate education?

4. How does consilience help us understand organisms?

5. How does Wilson characterize the current state of knowledge?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the modern understanding of dreams?

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

4. What three-part division does Wilson divide the brain into?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the knowledge that EO Wilson lost sight in one eye in childhood and lost a substantial degree of his sense of hearing in adolescence affect his idea of consilience? How would you relate the physical challenges with the intellectual rigor of the scientist, and the vision of the social theorist?

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

Is there a contradiction in how Wilson distinguishes between the social sciences and natural sciences, and yet argues for the overlap between all forms of knowledge? Is he saying that branches of knowledge are distinct, or not? Is he saying that all branches of knowledge are linked or not?

(see the answer keys)

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