Unit 8 We are only human

solitary: not sociable, lacking company to invoke: to use a law, a principle, a theory, etc. as a reason or evidence his prior drunken evening: the evening before
Unit Eight We are only human
By Laura Schlessinger
I. Warm-up Discussion
Belief in free will or in determinism?

II. the author
Laura Schlessinger (1947— )
4. the solitary sailor, tries to invoke the “only human” excuse when he attempts to explain his prior drunken evening by saying that it was, after all, “human nature”


7. While natural selection did shape our minds and feelings, there is something extra special about the human mind that leads us … to take that extra step past some action that makes sense on only the basis of “survival of the fittest,” or “survival of the me”. (←5)
Structure of the text
Part 1 (paras. 1— 7 ) about: Clashing definitions of
humanity
Part 2 (paras. 8—23 ) about: Three core elements for a true
human
Part 3 (paras. 24—29 about: Pleasure principle )
.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger's But I Waaannt It!
Dr. Laura Schlessinger's Why Do You Love Me?
Laura Schlessinger’s quotes:
Children are our second chance to have a great parent-child relationship.

when he was drunk


5. words:
peer at/into/over/through: look intently or fixedly, or look very closely or carefully =stare Cf. peep: to look at something quickly and secretly, especially through a hole or opening = peek Peep-hole: small opening in a wall, door, curtain, etc through which one may peep at sth.

Paraphrase: People no longer admit that every person has the ability to choose what they are and what they do, and thus that they are not to be blamed for what they do. Everyone’s actions or behaviors simply are causally determined by external factors over which they have no control. In this sense, people are no longer individuals who have free will, but a group that suffer from external causes.
Natural selection?
3. As if one’s humanness were a blueprint for instinctive, reflexive reactions to situations, like the rest of the animal kingdom. (←2)


Note the subjunctive “were”. Blueprint: (technical) the pattern in every living cell, which decides how the plant, animal or person will develop and how it will look like reflexive reactions: something you do when you react to a situation without thinking (Notice that it should be “reflex reactions” according to Longman’s dictionary.)
Works:
Parenthood by Proxy: Don’t Have Them if You Won’t Raise Them (2000) Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives (1994) How Could You Do That?! The Abdication of Character, Courage and Conscience (1996)
retort: make a quick, witty or angry reply; respond



6. …without which we are merely gigantic ants instinctively filling out our biologically determined destiny. (←4)
—PhD. in physiology, Columbia University;
—Post-doctoral certification in marriage, family and child counseling, University of Southern California; —A teacher, writer and radio talk show host.
The people and circumstances around me do not make me what I am; they reveal who I am. Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

to fill out their destiny: to fulfill their fate
Para: …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 (or genetic endowment).
behavior are based on instinct.
Have you got the key elements in the story?
Core elements character, courage, conscience Focus of the text how to be a true man
Part 4 (para. 30) about:
Further probe into conscience
II. Detailed Discussion of the Text

1. Nobody is acknowledged to have free will or responsibility any more. Everyone is the product of causation. There are no longer individuals, just victims in groups. (←1)
Author’s perspective
Human beings differ from animals in that humans act in accordance to their free will which in turn means the exercise of their moral ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱudgment while animals’
Film–The African Queen
The African Queen
A 1951 film in which a devout missionary and a drunkard steamboat captain pilot a boat down a river in German East Africa as WWI begins. English woman Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) and Canadian Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) make unlikely companions, but their quarreling turns into romance as they work toward their goal of sinking a German ship that patrols the lake into which the river feeds. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
2. It’s when callers protest that they are “only human.” (←2)

Caller

As psychological counselor, the author often receives calls from people who come to her for advice. “Callers” here refer to those people.


Paraphrase:
As if what makes us human were a kind of detailed plan which determines that we react to situations in a way that is instinctive and immediate, as all other animals, insects and birds do.
III. Text Analysis
General analysis
Theme of the Article Author’s perspective Core elements Focus of the text
Theme of the story
Morality principle of human beings