Part one of term paper
FRIEND OF SELF, FRIEND OF SOCIETY: THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Franklin's memoirs, his Autobiography, project a Benjamin Franklin who is a highly self-conscious individual able to reason himself into a life of self-control, self-improvement, virtue, and multifaceted success. To what successful ends does this Franklin apply hims ...

Part two of term paper
... from the picture, but has he eliminated self-sacrifice? When the interests of self and society seem to conflict, we discover a Franklin who from almost the beginning tries to find a way to be a good citizen as well as a good man, a friend both to himself and to others. What shall we make of the motives the author gives for writing the Autobiography itself? Franklin explicitly lists eight reasons (Lemay 1307-8): (1) his son (though anyone may become Franklin's moral descendant) may have a filia ...