Benjamin Franklin Study Notes and Discussion Ideas:
Importance of Franklin’s autobiography.
“Any representation is marked by its usefulness”
How is Franklin’s autobiography useful?
Franklin was encouraged to write his memoirs so that they could serve a didcatic purpose, to educate the young people of the country in the virtuous ways of conducting the business of ones life. How does “business” function in Franklin’s construction of his identity in the autobiography? How do his moral principles apply to his entire life (personal and business)?
Recall from our class discussions the various enactments of the “business of ones life.” How does this inform “American identity”?
Enumerate Franklin’s “Virtues” and describe his method of evaluating himself on the exercise of (attempting to) becoming perfect in each virtue. What does the organization of his methods tell us about his perspectives on self-perfectability? Is one born “perfect”? If one is born poor, for example, does this dictate ones life possibilities and potentials?
How does Franklin’s list of moral Virtues describe his ideas regarding the characteristics of the leaders of the new nation? Can we connect his theory of perfectability to notions about the growth, development, and possibilities for change in a nation of people? How is a nation of people like an individual body? Do his moral Virtues present a method of working toward personal morality that is, in fact, democratic? Can people of all income levels attempt to employ his methods? In this regard, he is perhaps not only addressing the youths who will become leaders, but all American youths (and those who are not-so young!).
What do you find to be the most compelling of the Virtues he lists? Why? Think about “Humility: Emulate Jesus and Socrates.” If one emulates both of these men, does this then fuse the secular and religious and in fact draw an equivalency between them (or between logic and faith)? What does this tell us about how Franklin conceives of morality?
Think about the letters that precede Franklin’s second autobiographical installment. What purpose do these letters (from Abel James and Benjamin Vaughn) serve?
Concerning the Benjamin Vaughn letter, why does Vaughn solicit Franklin’s life story? Vaughn invests Franklin’s story with a great deal of worth – it is personally instructive and also might perhaps serve a political purpose, to repair and improve relations with the English. How so?
Vaughn also writes that Franklin’s account of himself “will show that you are ashamed of no origin; a thing the more important, as you prove how little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness” (279). Based on your reading of the Autobiography, where does Franklin convey such ideas regarding self-improvement and infinite perfectability?
If Franklin does indeed show that origins are “little necessary” for happiness, virtue, or greatness, what is necessary? Is this dictum realistically applicable in colonial America?
Discuss the two models of education and religion that Franklin presents in his story of the Iroquois tribes. Does he assign wisdom to the Iroquois leaders? How does he indicate this?
In class, we concluded by discussing Cannasatego’s pronouncement that the white man’s “good deeds” were, in effects, actions that cheated Indians (in his example, it was cheating Indians in the price of beaver). Based on the preceding anecdotes, about the Anglo Christian culture’s assumptions regarding the superiority of its educational and religious institutions, how do you read Franklin’s conveyance of Cannasatego’s definition of what white “good deeds” are? Why does Franklin include this? What does it point out about Franklin’s own “moral Virtues”? Do these Virtues dictate adherence to “blind faith,” a faith that might be devoid of “goodness” (as Cannasatego seems to imply), or are Franklin’s thirteen moral Virtues hybrid virtues that seek to indentify good qualities and life paths drawn from any groups (native American, white American, or other) that demonstrate wisdom and admirable qualities?