现代大学英语精读4lesson15_backgroundinformation.ppt

* B T L E W Lesson 15—The Damned Human Race Part Two ENTER Author Human Conscience Attitudes Toward Conscience Background Information Mark Twain (1835-1901) was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, but lived as a child in Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. He took the pen name Mark Twain from the call of the pilots on the river steamers, which indicated that the water was twelve feet deep, a safe depth for a steamer. Author During his early years, he worked as a riverboat pilot, newspaper reporter, printer, and gold prospector. But then he turned to writing, and became one of the greatest of American writers. Although his popular image is as the author of such humorous works as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Author Twain had the other side that may have resulted from the bitter experiences of his life: financial failure and the death of his wife and daughters. His last writings are savage, satiric, and pessimistic. The present text is taken from Letters from the Earth, one of his later works. Author The end of Author. Through conscience and its related notion, synderesis, human beings discern what is right and wrong. While there are many medieval views about the nature of conscience, most views regard human beings as capable of knowing in general what ought to be done and applying this knowledge through conscience to particular decisions about action. The ability to act on the determinations of conscience is, moreover, tied to the development of the moral virtues, which in turn refines the functions of conscience. Human Conscience To be continued on the next page. Neither Plato nor Aristotle explicitly mention conscience, however. It is their discussions of the virtues, practical wisdom, and weakness of will that form the critical backdrop to medieval discussions of conscience. These discussions were heavily influenced by Augustine’s modification of these c