Benjamin Franklin Lecture 2: Brand Building, Pragmatic Deism, and the Pursuit of Moral Perfection
Post-Enlightenment Rationality and Brand Franklin
Post-Enlightenment View of Reason:
Rationality is frequently driven by underlying human desires rather than objective, dispassionate logic.
An individual determines where they desire to go first and subsequently invents a rationalization to justify getting there.
18th-Century Economic Context:
Franklin operated within a capitalist market economy dominated by small competing businesses.
Consumers had choices regarding which printing shop to patronize, and investors chose which entrepreneurs to fund.
Creation of "Brand Franklin":
Recognized early the vital commercial necessity of crafting a distinct public persona and brand identity.
"Brand Franklin" established public trust, a reputation for superior service, and top-of-mind awareness for printing needs.
Practices for Cultivating Public Brand Image:
Care was taken not only to be industrious and frugal in reality, but to aggressively avoid all public appearances to the contrary.
Wore intentionally plain, unpretentious clothing to signal non-extravagance and financial prudence.
Avoided all places of idle diversion during work hours, such as drinking in taverns or playing card games.
Transported purchased paper through street sidewalks on a wheelbarrow personally to show dedication.
Conducted wheelbarrow deliveries strategically when neighboring businesses were closing and streets were crowded, demonstrating personal investment and humbleness, despite owning the business and employing staff to perform manual labor.
Rags-to-Riches and Religious Orientation:
The self-made man narrative in Franklin's autobiography provides an explicit model for others to follow.
Acknowledges achieving success "with the blessing of God," reflecting actual belief rather than lip service, though religion was not central to his self-understanding.
Rejects Puritanical Presbyterianism (his birth religion) and its consuming focus on the afterlife, predestination, and salvation.
Maintained the belief that individuals forge their own earthly destiny.
Deism and Pragmatic Morality
Deist Principles:
Franklin aligned with Deism, a rationalist religious philosophy shared by several American Founding Fathers and documented in 18th-century London pamphlets.
Deist rejections included:
Divine revelation.
The literal divinity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Pragmatic Basis of Morality:
Following moral codes (such as the Ten Commandments) or avoiding transgressions (the Seven Deadly Sins) is not motivated by divine decree or fear of damnation.
Virtues are cultivated because they yield practical benefits, happiness, and prosperity in this world.
Self-Interest and Economic Utility of Integrity:
Wealthy merchants, nobility, sovereign nations, and princes constantly require honest agents to manage complex affairs.
Truly honest individuals are rare in the commercial world.
Cultivating genuine integrity alongside a public brand for honesty secures highly lucrative and prestigious positions representing elite clientele.
The Project of Moral Perfection and the 13 Virtues
Objective of Moral Perfection:
In middle age, Franklin established an ambitious project to eliminate all personal flaws and arrive at moral perfection.
Moral flaws were viewed as practical obstacles standing in the way of worldly success and productivity.
Barriers to Success:
Natural inclinations (e.g., wanting to take naps or quitting work early to go swimming).
Unproductive personal habits.
Negative social acquaintances (e.g., companions encouraging excessive drinking or staying up late).
The 13 Core Virtues:
Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation, puns, jokes, and showcasing verbal cleverness to focus on listening and learning.
Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. Maximizes time efficiency for reading and study.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Prevents giving up due to mood or difficulty (contrasted with Governor Keith, who made grand promises to aid Franklin's printing business but lacked follow-through).
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates (a virtue Franklin noted struggling with immensely).
Industry: Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sequential Scaffolding Method:
Virtues were tackled one at a time rather than all at once.
Mastered Temperance first to clear the mind, which facilitated Silence, which enabled Order, which supported Resolution.
Tracking Progress and the Genesis of the American Self-Help Genre
Self-Examination Method and Workbook:
Created a weekly workbook where each page was dedicated to one virtue, featuring its formal definition at the top.
Included a -day grid across the top with rows for each virtue.
Daily examinations were conducted: a mark or dot was entered for infractions, while clean days were checked off.
Acted as an achievement test to track progress and identify backsliding.
Legacy in the American Self-Help Genre:
Franklin's system established the structural model for the American self-help literature genre.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: Focuses on tiny changes, habit tracking, and systematic incremental life improvements.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey: Employs a workbook structure with sequential habit acquisition.
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe the World by Admiral McRaven: Originating as a University of Texas (UT) graduation address before McRaven became UT system chancellor, it advocates small foundational habits as catalysts for major life changes.
South Beach Diet: Features a -phase structured plan (Phase 1 eliminating carbohydrates, Phase 2 gradually reintroducing measured carbohydrates, Phase 3 maintenance and tracking).
Audience Interaction and Reflection
Application of Honesty in Modern Spheres:
Evaluation of whether Franklin's assertion—that honesty yields material success—holds true today across different domains:
Business sector.
Academic institutions.
Political sphere (whether politicians benefit from absolute truthfulness and authentic intentions).
Romantic relationships (whether total authenticity and transparency yield better relationship outcomes).
Personal Case Examples of Self-Help Implementation:
South Beach Diet: Produced weight loss of approximately to \,lbs with long-term weight maintenance.
Time Efficiency Guides: Provided brief productivity gains for roughly \,week before old habits resurfaced.
Depression and Mental Health Workbooks: Served as a helpful supplement, though explicitly acknowledged as no replacement for professional therapy.
Perfectionism and the Parable of the Speckled Axe
Assessment of Moral Perfection:
Franklin acknowledged never reaching the absolute perfection he targeted, falling far short of his goal.
Concluded that the attempt made him a significantly better and happier man than he would have been otherwise.
Identified Order as the single virtue he found most difficult to master, leading him to accept partial success.
The Parable of the Speckled Axe:
A man brought an axe to a blacksmith, requesting that the edge be sharpened to a point and all dark specks/blemishes removed from the sides of the axe head.
The blacksmith agreed, provided the customer turned the heavy stone honing wheel via foot pedals while the blacksmith held the axe head against it.
The customer pedaled continuously, asking repeatedly if the specks were gone, to which the blacksmith repeatedly answered: "Not quite, keep pedaling."
Exhausted and winded, the customer asked once more if all specks were gone.
Upon learning specks remained, the customer declared: "I like a speckled axe best."
Philosophical Takeaway for Perfectionism:
Imperfection is natural, human, and often preferable to the exhausting pursuit of absolute flawlessness.
Serves as essential advice for overcoming harmful perfectionism, such as obsessing over maintaining a perfect grade point average.