Learning from Franklin's Mistakes

Self-Interest Rightly Understood in theAutobiography

Bibliographic Data

ID6402385
AuthorsChristopher Scott Mcclure (Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume76
Issue1
Pages69-92
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670513000892
OpenAlexW2050165847
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited15

Benjamin Franklin divides the mistakes he lists in theAutobiographyinto “errata” and “great errata.” He derived no benefit from the latter, but some benefit from the former. Examining Franklin's regret, or lack of regret, at these errata opens a window onto Franklin's understanding of morality. The laxity in his list of virtues and his flexibility with regard to conventional morals stem from the insight Franklin tells us he gained from these errata. For Franklin, or at least his persona in theAutobiography, there was no conflict between egoism and altruism, and he is therefore the embodiment of a type of self-interest well understood. Tracing the story of the errata, which Franklin inserted into an earlier draft of the work's first part, and Franklin's later actions provides the key to understanding the rhetorical strategy of theAutobiography, and the reason he never wrote his proposedArt of Virtue

Altruism (biology · Art history · Biography · Epistemology · Humanities · Humility · Morality · Persona · Psychoanalysis · Regret · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Theology · Virtue · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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