Reviews
This insightful and elegantly written book is a joy to read and highly recommended.
A learned, wise, and well-written account... for giving readers one of the very finest introductions to this remarkable American's thought, we must thank Lorraine Pangle.
Smith Pangle... Brings an impressive knowledge of philosophy and Western intellectual traditions.
An excellent piece of work, gracefully written, as befits a work on the printer and master-writer himself. Its insight into Benjamin Franklin's thought is fresh and penetrating. Among the distinctive features of this work is its running comparison of Franklin with Socrates and with the high tradition of political philosophy. Pangle digs unusually deeply into Franklin's writings and the history of his doings.
Book Details
Note on Sources
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Earliest Franklin
Franklin, Socrates, and Modern Rationalism
1. The Economic Basis of Liberty
The Weber Critique
The Value of Work
Work, Acquisitiveness, and
Note on Sources
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Earliest Franklin
Franklin, Socrates, and Modern Rationalism
1. The Economic Basis of Liberty
The Weber Critique
The Value of Work
Work, Acquisitiveness, and Nature
A Republican Political Economy
The Meaning of Leisure
2. The Virtuous Citizen
The Ethos of the Merchant
Franklin's Early Thoughts on Virtue and Vice
Franklin's Retreat from His Early Views
The Project for Moral Perfection
Humility, Pride, and Vanity
The Art of Virtue
3. Philanthropy and Civil Associations
Man as a Political Animal
Franklin and Tocqueville on Associations
Franklin's Benevolent Projects
Democratic Leadership
4. Thoughts on Government
The Albany Plan of Union
Of Proprietors and Kings
Statesmanship and Public Relations
Natural Right and Human Opinion
Representation and Federalism
Democratic Diplomacy
The Constitutional Convention
Immigration, Race, and Slavery
5. The Ultimate Questions
Enlightenment and the Adequacy of Reason
The Civic Benefits of Religion
The Defects of Christianity
Toleration and Religious Freedom
The Existence of God
Eros, Death, and Eternity
Notes
Recommended Readings
Index