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

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)


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)


His business success as printer


His business success as printer, caused by his virtues, and the appearance of them


Nothing so likely to make a man’s fortune as virtue. (92)


Poor Richard's Almanach, “industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue.” 96.


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?


Franklin and his associates


Junto Club


Junto ClubMorals,


Junto ClubMorals, politics,


Junto ClubMorals, politics, and natural philosophy (science)


Junto ClubMorals, politics, and natural philosophy (science)

Lead to creation of public lending library


“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)


Poor Richard’s Almanack


Poor Richard’s AlmanackAlmanack: annual publication containing a

calendar, information on weather and other items.

Poor Richard’s Almanack


Poor Richard’s AlmanackProverbs containing the wisdom of many ages


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)


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


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


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)


City watchFire brigadePhilosophical society (Academy)HospitalForts


Promotion of useful projects

Utilitarianism:Value of an action is measured by its outcome (consequentialism)The chief value is increasing happiness and decreasing suffering


Improvements as postmaster


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)


Inventions


InventionsFranklin stove

Franklin stove


InventionsFranklin stove, for which he does not take out a patent


Science


Science“This is an age of experiments” (164)



His papers on electricity, based on experiments



His papers on electricity, based on experiments

Application in the form of lightening rod

Franklin as statesman

Economic relation of the colonies to England

Use of paper money and monetary supply

Population increase

The colonies as market (Smith)


Taxes

Political authority


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).

franklin’s art of virtue

Documents

associates benjamin

junto club benjamin

printerbenjamin franklin

junto clubmorals

reality industrious

business success

keimers credit

public subscription