Recovering Benjamin Franklin An Exploration of a Life of Science and Service

by Campbell, James

• ISBN13: 9780812693867
• ISBN10: 0812693868
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-22
• Publisher: Open Court

Summary

Is Benjamin Franklin, the familiar cultural icon whose face appears on coins, currency, and postage stamps, in addition to being an affable inventor, printer, and humorist also an important American philosopher? In Recovering Benjamin Franklin, James Campbell attempts to "recover" Benjamin Franklin's role as philosopher. In the broad eighteenth-century understanding of the term "philosopher", most people would say that Franklin clearly qualifies as one. But since the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of the term has narrowed. What should be said about Franklin as philosopher in the current sense of the word? Part of the problem is that Franklin's thought is difficult to classify. Franklin is not a composer of lengthy, systematic treatises. Instead, we know him as the author of letters and essays, primarily short and often fragmentary, that were intended for diverse audiences. Was Franklin a thinker whose interests were nearly universal, or was he a dabbler who flew from topic to topic? Was he a minor intellectual who was incapable of sustained theoretical work, or was he a thinker who recognized that thought must function in the world? In answering these questions, Campbell provides a survey of the events in Franklin's rich life and explores his extraordinary place in American history, along the way challenging a series of popular misconceptions that are based upon narrow interpretations of Franklin's work. To foster a more adequate understanding, the author lays out in detail Franklin's ideas in four areas: science, religion, morality, and politics.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Chapter 1: Introduction	1	(36)
1.1. Approaching Benjamin Franklin	1	(9)
1.2. Franklin's Life	10	(12)
1.3. Interpretations of Franklin	22	(15)
Chapter 2: Franklin's Life in Science	37	(54)
2.1. Natural Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century	37	(15)
2.2. Electricity and Lightning	52	(15)
2.3. The Range of Franklin's Natural Philosophy	67	(9)
2.4. Science as Cooperative Method Pursuing the Common Good	76	(15)
Chapter 3: Franklin's Religious Thought	91	(44)
3.1. Puritan Origins	91	(9)
3.2. Early Radicalism and Its Abandonment	100	(10)
3.3. Franklin's Life in Deism	110	(16)
3.4. Religion as a Social Good	126	(9)
Chapter 4: Franklin's Moral Thought	135	(40)
4.1. Simple Moral Formulations	136	(6)
4.2. Customs and Evaluation	142	(7)
4.3. The Importance of Virtue	149	(9)
4.4. Virtues like Industry and Frugality	158	(8)
4.5. A Puritan Morality?	166	(9)
Chapter 5: Franklin's Vision of the Social Good	175	(78)
5.1. Britain and America	176	(21)
5.2. Structures of Unification	197	(9)
5.3. Processes of Cooperation	206	(13)
5.4. A Simple Life of Democratic Equality	219	(17)
5.5. Equality, Race, and Slavery	236	(17)
Chapter 6: Franklin and the Pragmatic Spirit	253	(20)
6.1. Franklin's Pragmatism	253	(9)
6.2. Pragmatism and the American Spirit	262	(11)
Works Cited	273	(20)
Index	293