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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 is the goal, in Wilson's account, of molecular research on human cells?

2. What force did John Locke believe in, in Wilson's account?

3. What might be a consequence of the unification of knowledge, in Wilson's account?

4. What kind of progress does Wilson see in the history of life on earth?

5. What do nerve cells in the brain send signals along?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the relationship between complexity theory and consilience?

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

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

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

5. What does the term "consilience" mean?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Wilson's book begins and ends with a call for better efficiency and use of knowledge in solving problems. To what extent is consilience really Wilson's response to the dangers of industrial modernism? Is consilience really about knowledge and disciplines, or is it about clearing the way for scientists to contribute their experience to solving problems?

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innovate in business has required the policy of planned obsolescence, where everything technological is designed to be superseded by new products in the future.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

Is consilience a project for government planners or for university budgets? Is Wilson advocating a role for consilience in government or in education?

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