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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does consilience work?
(a) By breaking things down and putting them back together.
(b) By providing different models for the same behavior.
(c) By making science relevant to the humanities.
(d) By providing a context and a practical consequence to each scientific study.

2. What does science seek, in Wilson's account?
(a) Objective truth based on hypothesis.
(b) The mind of God.
(c) Probably hypothesis.
(d) Interesting hypotheses.

3. How does Wilson explain the ideal scientist's work ethic?
(a) Think like whales, work like minnows.
(b) Think like poets, work like bookkeepers.
(c) Think like children, work like fathers.
(d) Think like eagles, work like ants.

4. What does Wilson say the standards that measure scientific knowledge should be based on?
(a) Mathematics.
(b) Hypotheses.
(c) Something real.
(d) Theories.

5. What field does Wilson say philosophers and scientists should collaborate in?
(a) Biology and social sciences.
(b) Conflict resolution.
(c) Urban planning.
(d) International relations.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Wilson say we discover when we link social sciences, biology, ethics and environmental policy?

2. After considering all the different contexts for ants' communication, how does Wilson describe their form of communication?

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

4. Why does Wilson say that the concept of evolutionary progress is not easily defined?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe Rene Descartes' influence on Wilson's idea of consilience?

2. Why does Wilson cite Einstein as an example of someone who practiced consilience?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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