Franklin’s Art of Virtue
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Transcript of Franklin’s Art of Virtue
Franklin’s Art of Virtue
1. Temperance 8. Justice2. Silence 9. Moderation3. Order 10.Cleanliness4. Resolution 11. Tranquility5. Frugality 12. Chastity6. Industry 13. Humility7. Sincerity
Franklin’s Art of Virtue
1. Temperance 8. Justice2. Silence 9. Moderation3. Order 10.Cleanliness4. Resolution 11. Tranquility5. Frugality 12. Chastity6. Industry 13. Humility7. Sincerity
Franklin’s Art of Virtue
HumilityI cannot boast of much success in acquiring the
reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. (91)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under for the printinghouse. In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. (66)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under for the printinghouse. In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. (66)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under for the printinghouse. In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. (66)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
In the mean time, Keimer's credit and business declining daily, he was at last forc'd to sell his printing house to satisfy his creditors. He went to Barbadoes, and therelived some years in very poor circumstances. (66)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
His business success as printer
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
His business success as printer, caused by his virtues, and the appearance of them
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Nothing so likely to make a man’s fortune as virtue. (92)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Poor Richard's Almanach, “industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue.” 96.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
The double maxim of Franklin’s Art of Virtue
Be virtuous in order to increase your wealthBe wealthy in order to become more virtuous
1st Assignment: your art of virtue
Create list of virtues of your own (between 6 and 13) and arrange them in orderTranslate them into behavior and habitObserve yourself: do you follow them? When? when not?Write down your observations, either in a diary, like Franklin, or in some other form. Give examples.Draw conclusions: are your virtues similar or dissimilar to Franklin’s? Why?
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Franklin and his associates
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Junto Club
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Junto ClubMorals,
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Junto ClubMorals, politics,
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Junto ClubMorals, politics, and natural philosophy (science)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Junto ClubMorals, politics, and natural philosophy (science)
Lead to creation of public lending library
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
“Finding the advantage of this little collection, I proposed to render the benefit from books more common, by commencing a public subscription library.” (78)
Example of industry, and dedication to the public good
Benjamin Franklin’s education
John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)Cotton Mather, Essays to do Good (1710)John Locke, Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1689)Xenophon, Socratic DialoguesThe Spectator (intellectual journal) (1711-1712)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Poor Richard’s Almanack
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Poor Richard’s AlmanackAlmanack: annual publication containing a
calendar, information on weather and other items.
Poor Richard’s Almanack
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Poor Richard’s AlmanackProverbs containing the wisdom of many ages
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Poor Richard’s AlmanackProverbs containing the wisdom of many ages
“proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality”
Franklin’s public works
I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs. (103)
Franklin’s public worksI began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning, however, with small matters. (103)
Small improvementsStreet sweeping: ”I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighbourhood that might be obtain'd by this small expense” (124)
Franklin’s public works
Small improvementsStreet sweeping:” I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighbourhood that might be obtain'd by this small expense” (124)Observes old woman sweeping efficiently
Franklin’s public works
Small improvementsStreet sweeping:” I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighbourhood that might be obtain'd by this small expense” (124)Observes old woman sweeping efficientlyOrganizes system of street cleaning
Franklin’s public works
Some may think these trifling matters not worth minding or relating. [. . . ] Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. (128)
Franklin’s public works
City watchFire brigadePhilosophical society (Academy)HospitalForts
Franklin’s public works
Promotion of useful projects
Utilitarianism:Value of an action is measured by its outcome (consequentialism)The chief value is increasing happiness and decreasing suffering
Franklin’s public works
Improvements as postmaster
Franklin’s public works
a variety of improvements were necessary; some of these were inevitably at first expensive, so that in the first four years the office became above nine hundred pounds in debt to us. [. . .]
we had brought it to yield three times as much. (129)
Franklin’s public works
Inventions
Franklin’s public works
InventionsFranklin stove
Franklin stove
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
InventionsFranklin stove, for which he does not take out a patent
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Science
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Science“This is an age of experiments” (164)
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Science“This is an age of experiments” (164)
His papers on electricity, based on experiments
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Science“This is an age of experiments” (164)
His papers on electricity, based on experiments
Application in the form of lightening rod
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Franklin as statesman
Economic relation of the colonies to England
Use of paper money and monetary supply
Population increase
The colonies as market (Smith)
Franklin as statesman
Taxes
Political authority
Franklin as statesman
Mission to London, concerning the Colonies.Dispute over authority of the king: laws are
made by the Assembly and presented to the kind for his royal assent:
“as the Assemblies could not make permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law for them without theirs.” (167)
Beyond the Autobiography: Franklin as revolutionary
Agitated against British rule from England
Becomes delegate of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the Second Continental Congress
Committee of Five, charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence.
Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)Life writing (autobiography): creation of selfMode of life, including values and habits (culture)These values are geared towards increase in
wealthThey are realized by calculation, a form of book
keeping (his method).