what was benjamin franklin’s importance relative to the enlighnment

Written by: Thomas Kidd, Baylor University

By the end of this section, you volition:

• Explain how and why the different goals and interests of European leaders and colonists afflicted how they viewed themselves and their human relationship with Britain

Benjamin Franklin stood on the corner of Fourth and Curvation Streets in Philadelphia and took in the massive unfinished edifice in front end of him. He remembered how nine years before, in 1740, the hall, synthetic for the celebrated evangelical preacher George Whitefield, had been the largest in Philadelphia. Now it stood empty, and Franklin pondered what it might become. At forty-three years old, he was a savvy entrepreneur. In 1728, he had gear up up a press house where he published several different newspapers, printed hundreds of books on a variety of topics, and, most famously, wrote his popular yearly Poor Richard's Almanack. Franklin'due south "Poor Richard" offered witty communication and practical tips, encouraging colonists to be thrifty, difficult-working, and disciplined. The Almanack was a smashing success, running for 20-eight years and selling ten thousand copies annually.

Franklin was an important American scientist, inventor, and printer who was role of the larger Enlightenment, or Age of Reason. The Enlightenment was an international conversation of ideas that took place in the eighteenth century to increment and classify noesis near the natural globe and human condition through reason and experimentation. Scientists and other thinkers joined learned scientific societies, corresponded with one another, and published their discoveries in scientific journals. Their goals were to meliorate gild and humanity.

Although Franklin made plenty of money from his press, he as well believed his work served a greater borough and humane purpose. Newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets were like fiddling beacons of light, spreading knowledge among citizens throughout the land. Printing also helped proceed government from becoming corrupt. Franklin remembered how, in 1733, authorities had dragged the New York newspaperman John Peter Zenger into court for criticizing the purple governor, William Cosby. Zenger'due south newspaper published articles suggesting that the governor had fired colonial justices who refused to increase his salary. Zenger was found not guilty of libel in the landmark case for freedom of the press. Withal, colonial authorities connected their attempts to censor newspapers. Franklin knew he had to be clever in using satire and anonymously written pieces if he were to criticize the government in impress.

As he studied the giant assembly hall, he wondered how it might serve the cause of enlightening the city's immature men. Franklin believed information technology was critical for the citizenry in colonial America to be well educated. Forth 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. In addition to his work as a printer, Franklin had worked hard to spread knowledge throughout the city and ameliorate civic life. 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 borough knowledge and virtue. He also helped found a hospital, a burn down company, and the militia. Now, in the 1740s, a new thought came into Franklin's heed as he stood in front of the empty speaking hall. Perhaps this edifice could be a place of educational activity, a beacon of calorie-free that would shed rays of truth throughout the colonies.

Franklin speedily drew up a plan for this institution, the University of Pennsylvania (later renamed the University of Pennsylvania). All the other colonial colleges had been founded for religious purposes. For example, Harvard College was established in the 1630s to train Puritan ministers. Past the early 1700s, it was still committed to Christianity, just it taught its Congregationalist ministers the new "rational" theology instead of Calvinist doctrine. In 1701, a rival institution, Yale College, was founded by ministers who hoped it would maintain traditional Calvinist theology. The Higher of William & Mary (1693) was run by Virginian Anglicans, and evangelical Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1746. Franklin wanted his Academy to exist different. Instead of primarily grooming ministers, it would brainwash immature men to exist successful businessmen and public servants.

Different other colonial colleges, the Academy would non be run past ane Christian denomination. Franklin, who grew up in a strict Calvinist family, had gradually come to call up that true religion was about moral virtue rather than a detail fix of doctrines. He was skeptical about traditional Christian teaching on salvation, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity. He was also convinced, like other Enlightenment thinkers, that the all-time way for a society to promote virtue was to tolerate all religious beliefs. Governments should not support ane particular religion, Franklin argued, merely instead trust that truth would prevail through inquiry. His belief in toleration extended to the University's Board of Trustees, which comprised members of several different Christian denominations.

Equally plans came together for the Academy, Franklin embraced another thought. Instead of following the traditional curriculum, in which students studied ancient languages and Roman and Greek classics, the Academy would teach students knowledge of contemporary arts and sciences. Franklin was a scientist who argued that the University should teach "applied knowledge." Such an education would equip young men to make a good living and to be active citizens. The trustees of the Academy did not share Franklin's vision, nonetheless, and ultimately chose a more traditional curriculum.

Franklin, possibly the colonies' virtually prominent Enlightenment thinker, most famously contributed to man knowledge with his innovative scientific discoveries. He began wondering whether lightning were a form of electricity. In 1750, he published an article suggesting that this could be proven past flight a kite in a lightning storm. Two years afterward, Franklin decided to try. He stepped out into the streets of Philadelphia as thunder crashed and lightning streaked across the heaven and released into the stormy air a kite with a key tied to its string. He watched as the loose threads of the string began to repel each other and, equally he moved his mitt close to the key, saw information technology spark. He had proven that lightning was electricity. Franklin won international acclamation as a human being of scientific discipline and corresponded with many of the most important scientists throughout the colonies and Europe.

Benjamin West painted Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky old around 1816. By surrounding Franklin with cherubs, what statement was West making nearly him and his contributions to academia?

Though that was Franklin's well-nigh famous experiment, it was by no means his last. An endlessly curious homo, Franklin invented bifocal glasses and a more fuel-efficient fireplace stove, studied the circulation of currents in the Atlantic Ocean, wrote virtually theories of light, and made scientific observations of meteorology, refrigeration, and conduction. He did not accept out any patents to profit financially from his discoveries, because he wanted all humanity to benefit from the expansion of knowledge. He pursued his scientific work while continuing to publish through his printing press, serving as president of the American Philosophical Society and colonial America'due south Postmaster General, and working tirelessly as a political theorist and statesman. Franklin exemplified the enthusiasm and optimism of the Enlightenment. Like Thomas Jefferson and other men and women of the Enlightenment, he believed in the hope of reason and scientific discovery for progress. The new nation that Franklin helped constitute reflected many of his values: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the importance of education and learning, healthy borough institutions, and knowledge held past a self-governing denizens. Franklin's work equally a printer, scientist, and political leader helped shed the low-cal of liberty across a new nation. Over the next few decades, the Founders contributed to the American Enlightenment associated with creating a political novus ordo seclorum, a "new order for the ages."

---

Review Questions

1. Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack is an example of his

1. radical political beliefs
2. entrepreneurial success
3. poor business decisions
4. orthodox religious views

ii. Which of the following highlights Benjamin Franklin's high regard for borough virtue?

1. His founding of the Junto
2. His conducting scientific experiments and sharing his findings
3. His applying for patents
4. His writing of his autobiography

3. How was Franklin's Academy of Pennsylvania unique among the early colonial universities, such as Harvard and Yale?

1. Information technology was founded on Puritan principles.
2. Information technology was the first academy founded in the American colonies.
3. Information technology was chartered by the British crown.
4. It focused on concern and public service instead of religious preparation.

iv. Which statement best describes Benjamin Franklin's religious outlook?

1. He was a devout Catholic.
2. He supported state-run religious institutions favoring a item denomination.
3. He rejected the philosophy of Enlightenment thinkers for traditional Protestant views.
4. He was skeptical of organized religion and focused instead on moral virtue.

v. Throughout his life, Benjamin Franklin held all the following roles except

1. printer
2. scientist
3. politician
4. farmer

6. Because of the myriad roles he held in his lifetime, Benjamin Franklin typified what larger motility?

1. The Bang-up Enkindling
2. The Enlightenment
3. The temperance motion
4. The labor move

Free Response Questions

1. Explain how Benjamin Franklin influenced the development of republic in the mid-eighteenth century.
2. Explicate how Benjamin Franklin'southward scientific ideas and practices influenced colonial society.

AP Practice Questions

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky past Benjamin West (c. 1816).

Refer to the image provided

1. A historian might utilise the image of Benjamin Franklin to back up which of the following statements?

1. Franklin was interested in proving traditional religious beliefs through scientific experimentation.
2. Franklin believed in a autonomous form of regime.
3. Enlightenment thinking such as Franklin's was based on scientific discipline and reason.
4. Franklin advocated civic virtue and political activism.

2. Which of the following could a historian apply to support Franklin's reputation as a thinker of the Enlightenment?

1. Franklin'southward devotion to the Calvinist faith
2. Franklin's publication of Poor Richard's Annual
3. Franklin's apprenticeship to his blood brother
4. Franklin'southward role in the founding of the Academy of Pennsylvania

iii. The Enlightenment had the almost significant affect on

1. the Great Awakening
2. Bacon's Rebellion
3. the ethics behind the American Revolution
4. the demands of the Postage stamp Act Congress

---

Primary Sources

Sketch of the Franklin Stove: https://world wide web.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/franklin-scientist.html

Suggested Resource

Brands, H.W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.[Diverse publishers]

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.

Kidd, Thomas S. Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Begetter. New Haven: Yale University Printing, 2017.

Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Richard, Carl J. The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.

Wood, Gordon South. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin, 2004.

beyersnorne1947.blogspot.com

Source: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/benjamin-franklin-and-the-american-enlightenment

Share this post