The Enlightenment was an international conversation of ideas that took place in the eighteenth century to increase and classify knowledge about the natural world and human condition through reason and experimentation.
Enlightenment thinking such as Franklin’s was based on science and reason.
Along with others who shared the Enlightenment ideals of reason and free inquiry, he felt moral virtue was formed through learning. A virtuous people could then govern themselves in their colonial legislatures and town meetings.
Franklin’s “Poor Richard” offered witty advice and practical tips, encouraging colonists to be thrifty, hard-working, and disciplined. The Almanack was a smashing success, running for twenty-eight years and selling ten thousand copies annually. Franklin was an important American scientist, inventor, and printer who was part ...
Their goals were to improve society and humanity. Although Franklin made plenty of money from his printing, he also believed his work served a greater civic and humane purpose. Newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets were like little beacons of light, spreading knowledge among citizens throughout the land.
For example, Harvard College was established in the 1630s to train Puritan ministers. By the early 1700s, it was still committed to Christianity, but it taught its Congregationalist ministers the new “rational” theology instead of Calvinist doctrine.
In 1727, he created a debating society called the Junto that discussed new ideas, and in 1731, he founded the first public lending library in the colonies, the Library Company of Philadelphia, to promote civic knowledge and virtue. He also helped found a hospital, a fire company, and the militia. Now, in the 1740s, a new idea came ...
Franklin’s life was the model. He was an innovative entrepreneur who built a network of printers throughout the colonies; spearheaded numerous cooperative enterprises, including a university, a philosophical society, a hospital, a fire company, and a volunteer militia; and though he wasn’t a mathematical theoretician, ...
And Franklin did more than help create America. He cast the mold for an American ideal: that a free man may rise as high as his ambition will take him, and that his mind and effort are what matter, not his position at birth. In sum, Benjamin Franklin personified the Enlightenment.
In his Autobiography, Franklin claimed, “My father, burdened with a numerous family, was unable without inconvenience to support the expense of a college education.”. However, as Walter Isaacson points out in Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, “This economic explanation is unsatisfying.
Benjamin Franklin—who became the world’s most famous scientist during his life—had only two years of schooling. He was a genius no doubt. More important, he was ambitious.
111. Franklin’s first published writings have been lost to history. However, we know that he published two “broadside ballads,” the first being “The Lighthouse Tragedy” in 1718. The second was “On the Taking of Teach or Blackbeard the Pirate.”.
1. Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 196.
20. A 1682 decree granted Pennsylvania to William Penn. Penn set out to create a colony devoted to religious freedom, and indeed Pennsylvania thrived by attracting thousands of immigrants from all religions and sects. However, his heirs lived in England and did little to help advance or protect the colony. 21.
Benjamin Franklin brightened the Enlightenment through being involved in society and sharing his thoughts. Many know him for his scientific discoveries, but while yes those were influential, he also influenced America in many other ways such as: liberalism, religion, and conservativism. Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston of 1706, ...
He believed that his scientific discoveries proved the practicality of God’s laws. He is known for stating this belief in the Constitutional Convention, “the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men.” (Franklin)
His discoveries were brought to the public eye because they truly changed society forever . He believed that his inventions and discoveries were proof of.
He invented a pair of fins to wear on his hands as he swam. It was small inventions like these that sparked his creativity at a young age. It was also small inventions like these that eventually led to Franklin to having a deeper appreciation for European sciences, again, also unlike many during his time.
While in Philadelphia, he formed a group called the Junto. The Junto was a group of men that got together to discuss the social, political, and scientific questions that Franklin had. Franklin believed that the answers that his group would come up with, could improve society. Franklin gives a definition of what he believes his group to be in his …
Summary Of Franklin's Letter To The Enlightenment. There were revolutions throughout this time period, which would inevitably lead to social change. Franklin is known for his influence on the American Revolution and what was then the newly forming American government. This, however, was not his only accomplishment.
Andrew Carnegie's Contribution To America. Triumphantly surpassing a poor childhood, Andrew Carnegie became the richest man in knowledge and wealth. Along with his fame came infinite philanthropy and his charitable heart kept giving.