Benjamin Franklin Has Long Been

Benjamin Franklin has long been regarded as the most American of Americans (Pangle 2007). He is the embodiment of what we are and what we all as Americans aspire to be. He was a self-made man, clever, skeptical, hopeful, independent, and he was always looking for ways to make the human experience better. "How could we not love the man who carries our virtues to such charming perfection?" (2007) He was the founder of fire departments and libraries, sanitation projects, militias, hospitals, and a university (2007). As an inventor he invented the wood-burning stove, lightning rods, and matching grants. As an author he wrote Poor Richard's Amanack and the Way to Wealth (2007), both major successes. In politics, Franklin made a huge impact, yet there is little focus on his political thought these days. The bottom line is that throughout Benjamin Franklin's life, he made major efforts to always work on perfecting his mind. He believed that a lack of moderation was incompatible with human perfect, human dignity, and success. He also believed that reason was the only way for an individual to lead an intelligent life. Franklin was a moral philosopher though he did not make a living doing this and his philosophies are just as relevant today as they were in the 1700s.

"The masterpiece of man is to live to the purpose," wrote Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack in 1737 (Franklin & Rogers 1996). For Franklin, this one purpose to live for was happiness. Franklin understood that most people simply want to be happy in life; it was the major goal of people three hundred years ago, today, and it has been the goal of humankind most likely since the beginning of mankind. Franklin said, "The desire of happiness in general is so natural to us that all the world is in pursuit of it; all have this one end in view, though they take such different methods to attain it, and are so much divided in their notions of it" (1996). This is true; people take many different avenues in their search for happiness. Many believe that wealth and material things will bring them the happiness that they are craving, but sadly it almost always doesn't.

Franklin believed that there is no happiness except in "virtuous and self-approving conduct" (1996). Therefore, because humans have a very difficult time understanding this basic idea related to happiness, very few people are able to live to the purpose. Most people would not think that they had to conduct themselves in a more virtuous manner in order to be happier.

Franklin believed that people were convinced that wealth and pleasure could assure happiness, but rather, he noted, they were often the sources of much unhappiness. He once wrote to a friend, "In short, I conceive that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things" (Franklin & Rogers 1996).

Since Franklin had come to understood these ideas related to happiness at a very young age, he was able to live a life that was not just satisfying for him, but rather, it was satisfying to him because of how beneficial he was to others. Knowing that giving to others could not just help others but also bring great satisfaction was something that he strongly believed that all people must do. He also believed that God had intended humans to act like this in order to achieve happiness because it was how God himself achieved happiness. "I believe, he [God] is pleased and delights in the Happiness of those he has created; and since without Virtue Man can have no happiness in this World, I firmly believe he delights to see me Virtuous because he is pleased when he sees Me Happy" (Franklin & Rogers 1996).

Today, more than ever, because of the fact that we live in such a materialistic society and there is so much emphasis put on what one has (or doesn't have), Franklin's theories on happiness and the satisfaction that comes not from things but from helping others, is more important than ever. Franklin's ideas of finding happiness seem quite basic in theory, yet why is it that people are so unlucky in life when it comes to happiness? Why aren't people happier?