Compare And Contrast Benjamin Franklin And John Winthrop

The Enlightenment is when popular Christian preachers in the 1700’s preached to their congregation that freedom does not bestow from the English crown but is bestowed from God. They explained to their people that they had free will to choose what they wanted to do in order to be the best they could be for themselves. This included freedom of commerce, freedom of religion, and freedom of press. The Enlightenment gave people courage because of their faith in God to pursue freedom. Benjamin Franklin guided people in politics and people in the religious fashion and got them together. He helped facilitate the continental congress and other countries that would help support us during the revolutionary war. Franklin helped introduce Enlightenment to America through his readings, his writings, and his actions.

Winthrop’s use of imperative language here further solidifies the idea that he is not a zealous fanatic, but someone

In these speeches that both great minds gave there is some things that are alike then there's some differences . Some likes and differences are obvious and others are really hard to figure out. For some who have trouble paying attention, listening to the speeches it’s harder for them and for those who can listen to it over and over again and still understand it , it's easy for them. Then there's those who try to pay attention because they are important to the history of Americans, but just can't pay attention so they are a little of both problems.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald states, “It’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of...” Benjamin Franklin and John Woolman, both reflective, conscious thinkers of their time, embody this quote as they regularly pursued self-awareness and endeavoured to achieve their own valued principles. The similar themes of hyperawareness of morals and vanity, the impression of religion, wealth, and inner-outer consciousness pronounced by these two figures’ autobiography and journal are striking and, as well as the contrasting elements, merit thorough examination and explanation.

His writings had a great impact in the perception of the leaders of America. John Locke was an English philosopher who highly influenced the Founding Fathers. He highly believed in natural science and in the growing middle class and represented the principles of the Enlightenment. In an essay Locke wrote concerning human understanding in 1690, Locke denied the idea of native beliefs and argued that every individual is born with a blank mind and that it is the environment that shapes the individual. Thomas Hobbes 's belief that kings govern by divine power was rejected by Locke. He believed that every human being was born equal and that the surroundings in the environment was what molded everyone. Locke argued that people are blessed with some natural rights such as liberty, life, and property. Locke was the philosopher that exposed the concept of governmental checks and balances which later became the foundation for the U. S. Constitution.

Billions of people all over the nation and world have heard of the ideal American vision to be defined as a perfect set of rules and regulations that provide the ideal conditions for living life. Though many people to this day may still argue their understanding of these idealistic views, there is an ideniable truth that it was two most influential figures in history from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Benjamin Franklin and John Winthrop, who helped shape this vision through their strong and very different opinionated perspectives. God’ role and form of government, social classes gradation, nature and moral laws, individualism or collectivism and virtues of success are all important aspects that have helped shape the American vision, in which also the opinions of Franklin and Winthrop stand divided between the leaders. Franklin emphasized the importance of the science and reason, which explains the structure of the world its affect of life on every nation. Winthrop presented his “a City on a hill” model, where everything depends on God’s will.” (The Puritan Vision Altered, John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”, 1630, pp. 6-7). Unlike Franklin’s democracy and liberty, he believed in state of brotherhood. However, Winthrop shares Franklins’ nature norms in relationship between people, but Winthrop also builds his vision

Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin had brilliant ideas and both provided so much truth and reasoning in their speeches, even if they disagree on some issues, Henry and Franklin have many ideas the same. Such as, hey both have agreed on the constitution itself, Wanting what is best for the the federalist and anti-federalists, and having peace among the people. Not both speeches were similarities however.

Benjamin Franklin and John Winthrop, men with different ideals, present the same notion that America should be presented as a “city upon a hill.” Franklin believed that the American dream should be presented as an ideal where men and women are equal and can both move up in social class on their own, practicing any religion they desired. On the other hand, Winthrop believed that the new world was a religious safe haven only for the Puritans. American Exceptionalism was overall the main focus, guiding America to define itself as a special nation founded upon democratic values and liberty.

John Winthrop and John Adams and their respective works were heavily influenced by their times. Winthrop was a devout Puritan Christian that was escaping a persecuting king in the early to mid-seventeenth century. As a learned and religious man, he came to be the leader of this puritan sect that was to establish a society unlike any other, free from religious corruption that his fellow people saw in the Church of England, that would be a model community much like the “Citty upon a Hill” described in the bible. On the other hand, John Adams experienced the “tyranny” of the British monarchy in a contrasting way. This era was marked with worsened conditions for American colonists in terms of economic and social taxations. Their literary

Franklin also believed that “industry and thrift were being destroyed by aid to the poor,” (Stern & Axinn, 2012, p.28-29). He associated this with the law of nature and God, by stating that by providing aid for these individuals we are going against what God wanted for them. This went along with the view that had been developing at this time, that if someone was living in poor circumstances or had a tragedy occur it must be due to their own sins and their misfortune must have been a punishment from

The Man of Reason: Benjamin Franklin The rationalism movement was responsible for moving the colonists into a more educated time and pushed for revolution, leading to the colonies to later become independent. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first well-known rationalists. As portrayed in an excerpt of his work, The Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin represents the ideals of rationalism through his instinctive reasoning.

People all over the world like to believe they have a good moral compass and are capable of making honorable, ethical decisions. Arriving at moral perfection is not something everyone strives for, but Benjamin Franklin is an exception to that. In “The Autobiography” by Benjamin Franklin, he explicitly explained that he was striving for moral perfection, specifically, he strived for perfection through religion and faith. He went on to explain this idea throughout his autobiography, which leads to morality and religion becoming two major themes in his book. While reading Franklin, we can see that what is important to him is being moral and doing things for the right reason, not because everyone else is doing them.

In this manner, Franklin differs from Equiano; Franklin practices his own form of reason rather than a specific religion. He rules are very straightforward; ideals such as temperance, frugality, and justice cover his list. While, he does note that one should “Imitate Jesus and Socrates” (Franklin 84), he says so in an almost sarcastic manner, just to include some sort of religiousness on the list. Equiano primarily chooses faith. He was a very strong believer in god and chose to be baptized during his travels. Although Equiano did have a form of reason to his actions, his main focus was on doing what was right in the eyes of god. While Franklin’s writings teach us the ways of a self-made man, Equiano teaches us about faith and god, and how god was able to help him become the great man that he was with encouraging words “no help in them, nor by the law…’Salvation is by Christ alone!’” (Equiano 207).

The Age of Reason occurred within the 18th century, and during this time period men discovered the pursuit of knowledge not only within but also within the perceived universe. This movement of enlightenment contained multiple topics that revolved around government and religion. Thomas Payne, author of Common Sense, overall seemed to be under the belief that government and man alike are bad, but the lesser of two evils is to have a government to regulate the men. Personally he believed that government should be judged by its capability to protect the basic rights of men including life, liberty, and property. On the contrary Benjamin Franklin believed that man is naturally bad and government has the capability to be worse, therefore let government

The man Benjamin Franklin eventually became a man of good character and willingness to accept others. However, as the story of Ben Franklin unfolds you see he was indeed just a man. A man found to be of the same fault and human flaw as us all to which we were born, and that is into sin. Franklin as well as all people fell short. God told us in his word long before Ben Franklin ever existed. Romans 3:23 states “for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” (NIV). Franklin did prove however, by his own story that man could never be in a state of perfection. Franklin just came to terms that he was just a man, but strived to fight for what he thought was right to the end. Still God chose to bless him with privileged