This essay will focus primarily on Benjamin Franklin since I find him most intriguing, and perhaps most influential, out of the individuals mentioned in our recent readings. Franklin has had a monumental influence on the birth and development of the United States. His belief in the importance of an educated middle class has proven to be extremely important over the last centuries. Additionally, his emphasis on the importance of virtues and common sense has had a profound effect on our society. This is not going to be a biography of Benjamin Franklin and I am not going to go over the list of his inventions, nor his childhood, those would require a separate paper altogether. What I will focus on are the values and virtues that Benjamin Franklin practiced and publicized, and the effect they’ve had on American society.
Perhaps the most valuable notion publicized by Benjamin Franklin was the importance of the middle class. He believed that in order to have a functional democracy there has to be a strong and well educated middle class. Benjamin Franklin took a strong stance on this, and was strongly against the Old World aristocracy. He attempted to elevate the general educational level of Americans by establishing libraries, supporting secondary education, publishing newspapers, establishing the American Philosophical Society, and much more.
Benjamin Franklin was somewhat of a media mogul – he had a printing empire, a newspaper empire, and has developed the US postal office. Although he publically admits that he sold his books to make money, the message he was sending was very real, very valuable, and something he believed in very much. He published twelve virtues that were meant to help middle class individuals run businesses and provide them with good principles to live by. Franklin followed the twelve virtues himself rather methodically, although he admits that he wasn’t perfect, and it took practice.
Benjamin Franklin is also well known for his Poor Richard publication, which was somewhat of a common citizen’s guide to finance. His books were the first of their kind, and were meant to help people become successful in business, not live outside their means, and formulate good relationships with others. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” borrows heavily on the concepts originally written by Franklin.
Not everyone shared his views on general education and the eradication of aristocracy. One of the people that disagreed with Franklin was Thomas Jefferson. This disagreement was evident as Jefferson and Franklin founded Virginia and Pennsylvania Universities, respectively. Thomas Jefferson wanted to create a new aristocracy in the United States that wasn’t based on birth, as in the Old World, but based upon merit. Franklin didn’t want to have any aristocracy at all, and he believed in the importance of educating as many people as possible, and allowing every aspiring person to do better and consequentially improve society as a whole. According to Franklin, everyone in society can benefit from an education, and he intended his University to engage people of all walks of life. What’s ironic about this is that University of Pennsylvania is now considered an Ivy League school, something that is somewhat synonymous for modern day aristocracy.
Franklin separated virtue, morality, and faith from organized religion, and took a much more pragmatic and sensible approach. This belief was common during the Age of Enlightenment, and was even more common in the United States. Separation of Church and State, a concept this country prides itself in, gained momentum during these times, and was undoubtedly influenced by Benjamin Franklin. The United States was meant to be a new type of nation where rationality and reason were the driving forces behind decision making, not inherent dogma. Franklin didn’t want to be ideological and felt that religion based on received dogma was less useful than a religion, a science, or a political philosophy that was based on things that actually worked.
In a letter to Thomas Paine, Franklin wrote, “If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it.” In other words, Franklin understood the importance of religion, but emphasized that the lessons it teaches have to be valuable and make sense. Throughout his life he made many donations to churches of all sorts of denominations. At his funeral 35 different ministers and the Rabbi of the Jews of the city of Philadelphia accompanied his casket as it was moved to the graveyard – most people have just one.
Benjamin Franklin had slaves himself, and allowed for advertising and trading of slaves via his newspapers. However, in time he became aware of this inconsistency in his value system, and freed his slaves. Even if the freeing of his two slaves was purely symbolical, it is insignificant when compared to the good that came from the committees and organizations he established that would assist future freed slaves with education and integration into society, and eventually into the middle class.
Upon researching Benjamin Franklin I stumbled upon a lecture by Walter Isaacson who was discussing his recent book, “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,” at the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. Walter Isaacson made many good points about Benjamin Franklin, and of his influence in foreign policy as well as domestic affairs. Isaacson believes Franklin was the last good ambassador the United States was able to send to France. Franklin was able to balance the strategic interests of France, and convince the French government to help the United States in its fight for independence. While Ambassador to France, he established a printing press and build very good rapport with the French people. Whether he did this because he truly believed in spreading modern way of thinking, or because it was part of his propaganda machine to convince France to help us, it worked out for us in the end.
Franklin admitted that he was never able to master the virtue of humility, his twelfth virtue, but he was able to fake it. In practice he discovered, the appearance of humility turned out to be just as useful as the real thing. To put things into perspective I quote Walter Isaacson from an article in the New York Times, “Remember to heed President Bush’s rhetoric during his campaign about the need for America to show humility in its dealings with the rest of the world. Sure, as the president has since pointed out, the terrorist attacks made a more assertive policy necessary. But it does not need to be accompanied by a pretense of swagger and bluster, which seems to be the pumped-up preference in Washington these days. Instead, it should be accompanied by a pretense of humility.” As we can see the principles Benjamin Franklin advocated are still very applicable today. Perhaps his greatest gift to our society was the notion of tolerance, the notion of fallibility, and the sense of humility that we need so much more in this world, in our politics, in our national life, in our civic life, and in our world today.
Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on American Society
This essay will focus primarily on Benjamin Franklin since I find him most intriguing, and perhaps most influential, out of the individuals mentioned in our recent readings. Franklin has had a monumental influence on the birth and development of the United States. His belief in the importance of an educated middle class has proven to be extremely important over the last centuries. Additionally, his emphasis on the importance of virtues and common sense has had a profound effect on our society. This is not going to be a biography of Benjamin Franklin and I am not going to go over the list of his inventions, nor his childhood, those would require a separate paper altogether. What I will focus on are the values and virtues that Benjamin Franklin practiced and publicized, and the effect they’ve had on American society.
Perhaps the most valuable notion publicized by Benjamin Franklin was the importance of the middle class. He believed that in order to have a functional democracy there has to be a strong and well educated middle class. Benjamin Franklin took a strong stance on this, and was strongly against the Old World aristocracy. He attempted to elevate the general educational level of Americans by establishing libraries, supporting secondary education, publishing newspapers, establishing the American Philosophical Society, and much more.
Benjamin Franklin was somewhat of a media mogul – he had a printing empire, a newspaper empire, and has developed the US postal office. Although he publically admits that he sold his books to make money, the message he was sending was very real, very valuable, and something he believed in very much. He published twelve virtues that were meant to help middle class individuals run businesses and provide them with good principles to live by. Franklin followed the twelve virtues himself rather methodically, although he admits that he wasn’t perfect, and it took practice.
Benjamin Franklin is also well known for his Poor Richard publication, which was somewhat of a common citizen’s guide to finance. His books were the first of their kind, and were meant to help people become successful in business, not live outside their means, and formulate good relationships with others. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” borrows heavily on the concepts originally written by Franklin.
Not everyone shared his views on general education and the eradication of aristocracy. One of the people that disagreed with Franklin was Thomas Jefferson. This disagreement was evident as Jefferson and Franklin founded Virginia and Pennsylvania Universities, respectively. Thomas Jefferson wanted to create a new aristocracy in the United States that wasn’t based on birth, as in the Old World, but based upon merit. Franklin didn’t want to have any aristocracy at all, and he believed in the importance of educating as many people as possible, and allowing every aspiring person to do better and consequentially improve society as a whole. According to Franklin, everyone in society can benefit from an education, and he intended his University to engage people of all walks of life. What’s ironic about this is that University of Pennsylvania is now considered an Ivy League school, something that is somewhat synonymous for modern day aristocracy.
Franklin separated virtue, morality, and faith from organized religion, and took a much more pragmatic and sensible approach. This belief was common during the Age of Enlightenment, and was even more common in the United States. Separation of Church and State, a concept this country prides itself in, gained momentum during these times, and was undoubtedly influenced by Benjamin Franklin. The United States was meant to be a new type of nation where rationality and reason were the driving forces behind decision making, not inherent dogma. Franklin didn’t want to be ideological and felt that religion based on received dogma was less useful than a religion, a science, or a political philosophy that was based on things that actually worked.
In a letter to Thomas Paine, Franklin wrote, “If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it.” In other words, Franklin understood the importance of religion, but emphasized that the lessons it teaches have to be valuable and make sense. Throughout his life he made many donations to churches of all sorts of denominations. At his funeral 35 different ministers and the Rabbi of the Jews of the city of Philadelphia accompanied his casket as it was moved to the graveyard – most people have just one.
Benjamin Franklin had slaves himself, and allowed for advertising and trading of slaves via his newspapers. However, in time he became aware of this inconsistency in his value system, and freed his slaves. Even if the freeing of his two slaves was purely symbolical, it is insignificant when compared to the good that came from the committees and organizations he established that would assist future freed slaves with education and integration into society, and eventually into the middle class.
Upon researching Benjamin Franklin I stumbled upon a lecture by Walter Isaacson who was discussing his recent book, “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,” at the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. Walter Isaacson made many good points about Benjamin Franklin, and of his influence in foreign policy as well as domestic affairs. Isaacson believes Franklin was the last good ambassador the United States was able to send to France. Franklin was able to balance the strategic interests of France, and convince the French government to help the United States in its fight for independence. While Ambassador to France, he established a printing press and build very good rapport with the French people. Whether he did this because he truly believed in spreading modern way of thinking, or because it was part of his propaganda machine to convince France to help us, it worked out for us in the end.
Franklin admitted that he was never able to master the virtue of humility, his twelfth virtue, but he was able to fake it. In practice he discovered, the appearance of humility turned out to be just as useful as the real thing. To put things into perspective I quote Walter Isaacson from an article in the New York Times, “Remember to heed President Bush’s rhetoric during his campaign about the need for America to show humility in its dealings with the rest of the world. Sure, as the president has since pointed out, the terrorist attacks made a more assertive policy necessary. But it does not need to be accompanied by a pretense of swagger and bluster, which seems to be the pumped-up preference in Washington these days. Instead, it should be accompanied by a pretense of humility.” As we can see the principles Benjamin Franklin advocated are still very applicable today. Perhaps his greatest gift to our society was the notion of tolerance, the notion of fallibility, and the sense of humility that we need so much more in this world, in our politics, in our national life, in our civic life, and in our world today.