Idea from Ben Franklin

[Trumpetman]

As I was reading Ben Franklin's Autobiography the other day during English class I got this idea. The excerpt I read was about moral perfection and how he had all these virtures that he had to follow to achieve moral perfection. He had a calendar and marked everyday when he practiced a certain virtue.

This gave me a great idea as to how you want to be. Franklin wanted to be a person with no faults so his "virtues" were based on peferfection and things like justice, silence, temperance, chasticy, etc. I suggest you all write down the kind of person you really want to be and maybe the kind of person that would attract girls or in general that people would like you.

My list right now is as follows: Fun, out-going, playful, open-minded, smooth, exciting, interesting, daring, spicy, fresh, creative.

And soon enough if you figure out how to become each of those elements and if you work on them indiviually, you'll true into that person and have the right attitude and you'll "be yourself" because that's who you've always wanted to be.

 

[mpimpin]

It only works if you take it really slowly and one flaw at a time until you have that one down. Franklin didn't succeed in his endeavor because he tried to do to much at one time. A lesson can be learned there for more then just self improvement.

 

[Oxide]

Here is what Franklin and then Warren Buffet both did:

Imagine the coolest person you know. The person you admire. Now list the characteristcs of this person that you would like to acquire. - confidence, charm, style, charisma


Now conjure up the image of a person who you do not particularly like and think they would fail in life. List those characteristics as well.

Now all you do is work on obtaining more of 1st and getting rid of 2nd.

i am yet to make this sheet but i will tomorrow-- this stuff works and it is so simple

 

[The Forms]

You know Ben Franklin had illegitimate children with a couple of prostitutes right? He had two illegitimate kids with his common law wife (read: baby's momma) when he was about in his twenties, and two more with prostitutes later on.

He was a humorist, so you kind of have to take a lot of what he said with a grain of salt. If you read enough of that "poor richard" stuff you realize that acting like poor richard tells you to is way too hard. Furthermore, he didn't ACTUALLY do what he wrote.

I'm not saying practicing virtue is a bad idea, it's actually cool stuff, but get a better source.

In Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics you can get a pretty good handle on the basis of virtue theory. For a more modern work that REALLY lays out what virtue actually IS, you can read Lawrence Becker's A New Stoicism.

I know you're in high school, so you probably don't really read these guys, but they're really awesome. They clarify what virtue IS, and Becker gives a pretty thorough account on how to arrive at it.

That, and if you can quote Aristotle, people'll take you more serious than if you quote Franklin.

 

[Oxide]

Forms where did you get all this info on Franklin, its fascinating stuff.

Any other books/biographies you recommend?

 

[The Forms]

I'm a philosophy major, so this is the type of stuff I study.

Really its all just about what you're into. I took a really in depth seminar on virtue theory, so that's what I just happen to know a lot about though.