Rationalist Assignment 3: Benjeman Franklins Autobiography

Franklins method of "arriving at moral perfection" is an example of his rationalism. In the passage he describes his attempt to better himself from a very logical and organized standpoint. This supports the rationalist ideas of self improvement through better understanding of the aspects of our live. He divides his plan into thirteen segments, each revolving around a virtue which he believes should be instilled into his lifestyle. These are listed in a very orderly and comprehensive manner. He explains this in the following passage, saying:

"In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewers ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating anc drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even top our avarice and ambition, I propsed to myself, for the sake of clarity, to use rather more names and fewer ideas annexed to each than a few names with more ideas; and I included after thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occured to me as neccesary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning."