autobiography<\/a>, Ben Franklin claims to seek \u201cmoral perfection.\u201d\u00a0 He wants to be faultless and not miss the mark whether because of humans\u2019 natural predisposition to sin, or cultural tendencies.\u00a0 He believed that having the intelligence to know right from wrong would enable him to make the correct choices.\u00a0 He quickly acknowledges that this task is not as easy as he would have thought.\u00a0 When he thought he had mastered one area, another took him by surprise.\u00a0 He concludes that having conviction to be perfectly moral was not enough to prevent him from actually committing the acts he did not want to commit.\u00a0 In Christian terms, his sinful nature was not going to be beaten by his will power and reason.\u00a0 I respect Ben Franklin\u2019s determination to make himself a better person, but without divine help (which he had written off earlier in life) it proved to be unattainable.\u00a0 Virtue proved fleeting to him because it cannot be reduced to human reason and attempts to work it out for oneself.<\/p>\nEven though Ben Franklin could not achieve sanctification by his own merit, his plan of action was admirable.\u00a0 He knew that current habits needed to be broken and replaced by more virtuous habits.\u00a0 It was more than just adding new habits to his life, but reworking the way he thought and the patterns of living he currently had.\u00a0 This is applicable to life; one cannot just add new practices to a bad foundation and expect everything to work out.\u00a0 To rewrite the way he lived and spent his time, Ben Franklin devised a list of thirteen virtues to attempt to achieve his righteous lifestyle.<\/p>\n
The first virtue he focused on was Temperance.\u00a0 Everything should be done in moderation.\u00a0 He focused on this virtue first because it would enable him to pursue the other twelve virtues.\u00a0 The next virtue on the list is silence.\u00a0 This is a virtue that should be obtained by more people.\u00a0 Order, industry, and resolve revolve around doing what one ought and making use of time and not wasting it.\u00a0 Frugality and moderation make the list.\u00a0 Sincerity is about not being deceitful and justice relates to wronging no one.\u00a0 Cleanliness is of importance to Franklin.\u00a0 Towards the end of the list is tranquility \u2013 the aim of not being perturbed by uncontrollable events.\u00a0 Chastity is listed.\u00a0 Humility is the final virtue; Franklin wishes to imitate Jesus and Socrates which is a lofty goal to say the least.<\/p>\n
Ben Franklin\u2019s approach is logical and seems like it should make it possible for a person to become virtuous.\u00a0 Up to a point this would work, but humans do not possess the capability of becoming perfect on their own.\u00a0 There is a nature that every person is susceptible to; a sinful nature.\u00a0 Everyone has a bend toward sin.\u00a0 That cannot be changed by sheer will power or even an expertly crafted plan of attack.<\/p>\n
In his autobiography, Franklin also speaks to his disdain for religion.\u00a0 It was forced upon him.\u00a0 He has no place for it in his life now.\u00a0 His list of virtues was fueled not by a yearning to appease the gods or God, but a belief that virtue will lead to success and wealth.\u00a0 It is interesting that even though he wants nothing to do with God, his virtues are similar to those expressed in various religions.<\/p>\n
Virtue cannot be boiled down to \u201cdo\u2019s and don\u2019ts\u201d.\u00a0 It cannot be attained because someone wants it enough or works hard enough.\u00a0 Sanctification, the process of becoming holy and virtuous, should be worked out in conjunction with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Julia Joyce In his autobiography, Ben Franklin claims to seek \u201cmoral perfection.\u201d\u00a0 He wants to be faultless and not miss the mark whether because of humans\u2019 natural predisposition to sin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":3450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[346],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-studies","tag-american-literature","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions\/3483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}