Lesson Eight

1. Lesson Eight We’re Only Human Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger

2. About the author • .Dr. Laura C. Schlesinger was born in Brooklyn. New York in 1947. She has a Ph.D. in physiology from Columbia University and a post-doctoral certification in marriage, family and child counseling from the University of Southern California, where, upon graduation, she became a faculty member and taught for five years. Dr. Laura Schlessinger is the recipient of many national awards and the author of many New York Times best-sellers, including: Parenthood by Proxy; Don’t Have Them if You Won’t Raise Them.

3. About The Text • The present text is and excerpt taken from the book “Courage and Conscience”, a book based on Schlessinger’s conversations with her radio callers (She runs a very successful radio program) fallacy

4. Guide reading to the text • This essay should be studied with more emphasis on the content. The author here is addressing the problem of moral principles, which is a very important part of our education, and should be particularly interesting for our students at a time when many feel confused and cynical. • A practical suggestion to the teacher: it might be a good idea to ask the students to express their views on what constitute moral actions

5. Ideas in the Text • “We’re only human” cannot be used as an excuse for justifying our wringdoings. She does not say what she considers moral, but she clearly implies that it has to be altruistic. In this article, she mainly focuses on how to be a true human. In her opinion, we need three C’s: Character, Courage, and Conscience. All these ideas are eloquently presented in this article. However, she is particularly eloquent when she refutes the concept of moral behavior as an investment for greater returns and when she contrasts “happiness” and “pleasure”. • Hopefully the study of this text will rouse the students’ interest in the problem of ethics. • It is not the intention of the compilers to give the students a full doze of ethics. But it is our hope that each text will serve as an appetizer for further studies, a window through which the aspiring students can see a new world.

6. Paragraph 1 • Nobody is acknowledged to have free will or responsibility any more: • People no longer admit that every person has a free will to decide to do or not to do, and therefore should be responsible for their actins or behavior.

7. Paragraph 1 • Everyone is the product of causation. There are no longer individuals, just victims in groups: • The author is referring to the behaviorist theory that human behavior is a response to external stimulation, and therefore is genes-determined. In this sense human beings have no free will, they are all victims of these external causes as a group. • The author is clearly opposed to this theory and is deeply disturbed by the implications.

8. Paragraph 1 • It’s when callers protest that they are “only human” • As a psychological counselor, the author often receive calls from people who come to her for advice, “Callers” refer to those people.

9. Paragraph 2 • As if one’s humanness were a blueprint for instinctive, reflexive reactions to situations…: • As if the fact we are human were a kind of detailed plan which determines how we react to situations. This reaction is instinctive and natural just like with all animals, insect, birds. • Reflexive reactions: sth you do when you react to a situation without thinking.

10. Paragraph 3 • The African Queen: • An American movie made in 1951 with the well-known Hollywood movie star Humphrey Bogart playing Charlie, the solitary sailor, and another well-known movie star Katharine Hepburn playing Rosie, the missionary. The story describes how the two of them battled the elements, the Germans and each other during their travel up the Congo in World War I.

11. Paragraph 3 • His prior drunken evening: • The evening before when he was drunk.

12. Paragraph 4. • … without which we are merely gigantic ants instinctively filling out our biologically determined destiny: • … without these qualities, we cease to be human and will be just like big ants which live out their lives in a way that is determined by their natural instincts.

13. Paragraph 5 • … there is sth extra special abut the human mind that leads us…or “survival of the me”: • … there is sth special about the human mind which can make us go beyond selfish actions, actions that can only be explained by the need for survival. • The author obviously is opposed to the idea that the Darwinist theory of the “survival of the fittest” can also apply to human beings, and she sarcastically rephrases this theory to “survival of me”

14. Paragraph 6 • … self-advancement and self-indulgence are powerful innate drives: • … the desire to improve yourself, move ahead, or achieve your purposes, and the desire to enjoy life are very powerful and natural, inborn, instinctive.

15. Paragraph 6 • Seemingly altruistic behaviors: • Altruistic behaviors on the surface. • Altruistic behavior: behavior that shows you care more about others than you do for yourself

16. Paragraph 8 • … character, which I once heard defined as “what you are when no one else is looking.”: • If you do good things when no one else is looking it means to one will know what you have done. It will then mean that you can never get anything in return. It means that you are doing what you are doing not for returns of any kind, but because you feel happier doing them.

17. Paragraph 9 • He didn’t have…on it: • He didn’t really own Polly Espy, or Polly espy didn’t really belong to him.he meant they were not married or going steady. But they were friends so Petey had the first claim or the privilege of first asking Polly Espy to be his wife.

18. Paragraph 9 • At Jack’s bachelor party: • A party for men only, esp. the night before a man’s wedding.

19. Paragraph 9 • The entertainment-type of women: • A person who entertains is a person who sing, dance or gives other kinds of performances to amuse people. But here the author seems to be suggesting that it is a stripper or even a prostitute.

20. Paragraph 12 • … his career is about to take off: • … his career is about to become suddenly successful

21. Paragraph 25 • If I could project you 15 years into the future…: • To project: to throw

22. Paragraph 17 • Merely sustaining life is a vegetable state,…: • Vegetable: someone who can not think or move because their brain is damaged. • A vegetable state: 植物人状态 • Sustained action against odds: continued action against difficulties. • Leap of faith: an act or an instance of accepting or trusting in sth. That cannot be readily seen or trusted.

23. Paragraph 19 • Courage is also what gives values vibrancy: • Courage gives life and energy to values.

24. Paragraph 20 • Escape clause: • Part of a contract that releases a person from obligations under certain conditions.例外条款

25. Paragraph 21 • We wish to be excused because guilt an shame are painful emotions…: • In order to be excused, we often try hard to twist things and put the blame on others or try to justify our actions in various ways in our speaking as well as in our thinking.

26. Paragraph 22 • Conscience, our capacity to judge ourselves in moral terms and to conform to those … • The author defines the word “conscience”: • (1) it is part of our inner being, our soul • (2) it is our capacity to judge ourselves in moral terms and to conform to those standards and values. • (3) it is motivated by our desire to avoid shame and guilt as well as our need for pride, compassion, empathy, love, and identification.

27. Paragraph 22 • Compassion: a strong feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering and a desire to help them. • Empathy: the ability to understand other people’s feelings and problems. • Identification: a strong feeling of sympathy with someone that enables you to share their feelings. • Conform to: to obey

28. Paragraph 23 • The metaphorical point of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden is that…: • Metaphorically, when Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, it means that their Bliss of Innocence is over, and they have to make their own choices. But on the other hand they now are able to make their own choices because they have found knowledge.

29. Paragraph 24 • Conscience would appear to get in the way of that: • Conscience would appear to prevent us from getting that immediate pleasure. • To get in the way: to prevent sb from doing sth.

30. Paragraph 26 • A discreet experience: • Pleasure is often private and personal, and you therefore want to be careful or prudent about it.

31. Paragraph 26 • An absorbing movie: • Absorbing: interesting, enjoyable, gripping

32. Paragraph 30 • … generate pain for others and destruction to their ultimate potential for self-esteem and personal achievement: • To generate: to produce • self-esteem: the feeling that you are someone who deserves to be liked, respected, and admired.

33. Paragraph 30 • Internalized fear: • Fear that has become part of you through learning or socialization

34. Paragraph 30 • Something we impose upon ourselves in order to become complete human beings: • To impose on/upon: to place something unpleasant on somebody, e.g. • 1. Teachers sometimes have no choice but to impose strict rules on the students. • 2. I’m not going to impose it on you. But it will be for your own good if you could keep a diary in English.