Consilience

Can science and the arts enrich each other? Support your argument with evidence from the text. 

Theseus descends into the Labyrinth, kills the Minotaur, then escapes the maze by retracing backward a long thread of yarn that he has unspooled from the Labyrinthine entrance. What do Theseus, the maze, the Minotaur, and the thread each represent in the story of science? 

What is the Romantic period, and how does it differ from the Enlightenment? 

Explain briefly how humans and their cultural environments coevolve. 

Artistic genius doesn’t exist in a particular place in the nervous system. How, instead, does the brain generate exceptional art?

What are the four elements of a good scientific theory? Describe each in a short phrase. 

The Hardy-Weinberg principle calculates the odds for the expression of various genes in populations of plants or animals. How might this be useful to breeders or environmentalists? 

Sometime in the near future, you may be able to choose, through genetic engineering, whether your offspring are hyperrational and emotionless, super-athletic, or have a skin color different from your own. Would you be willing to make those decisions for your children? Argue for your viewpoint.