The Princess & the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin, and the Age of Enlightenment

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. I ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Ann Prince ◽  
Baruch S. Blumberg ◽  
Michael D. Gordin ◽  
Michelle Lamarche Marrese ◽  
Marcus C. Levitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Benjamin Franklin ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment

Reason and Power in Benjamin Franklin's Political Thought

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1092-1115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Stourzh
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Benjamin Franklin ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
Unanimous Agreement

Perhaps no period of modern history has been more a victim of generalization than the Age of Enlightenment. The worship of reason and progress and belief in the essential goodness and perfectibility of human nature are most commonly associated with the 18th century climate of opinion. Many of the stereotypes which have been applied to it have automatically been transferred to Benjamin Franklin. Already to contemporaries of his old age, Franklin seemed the very personification of the Age of Reason. Condorcet, who had known Franklin personally, summed up his description of Franklin's political career as follows: “In a word, his politics were those of a man who believed in the power of reason and the reality of virtue.” In Germany, an admirer was even more enthusiastic: “Reason and virtue, made possible through reason alone, consequently again reason and nothing but reason, is the magic with which Benjamin Franklin conquered heaven and earth.” This is also the judgment of posterity. F. L. Mott and Chester E. Jorgensen, who have so far presented the most acute analysis of Franklin's thought and its relationship to the intellectual history of his time, do not hesitate to call him “the completest colonial representative” of the Age of Enlightenment. Unanimous agreement seems to exist that Franklin was “in tune with his time.”

Benjamin Franklin and shock-induced amnesia.

2006 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Finger ◽  
Franklin Zaromb
Keyword(s):  
Benjamin Franklin
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